


The Good in Us

by AngelWritesThingz97



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura is a salty space mom at Lotor, Galra Keith, Insecure Keith, Insecure Lance, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith leads voltron, Lotor hitting on Keith, M/M, Mention of torture, Red is best mom cat, Slow Burn, Space Mom Allura (Voltron), Underage Drinking, blue loves lance and no one can tell me otherwise, he doesnt want to, hes got galra ears and claws and its cute, involves a very creepy Lotor, its just an insecure party over here, keith gets turned more galra in this one, klance, lance is a salty boi, lance is also bad at feelings, mention of forced relationships, really bad at tags, shiro is mentioned a lot, slav shows up for maybe a chapter, this is after shiro goes missing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-22 16:44:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9616460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelWritesThingz97/pseuds/AngelWritesThingz97
Summary: After Shiro goes missing, Keith and Lance are plummeting into their crippling insecurities. If things couldn't get any worse, Lotor comes into the picture and takes an interest in Keith, leading to an accident that turns him more Galra, furthering his insecurities. Lance slowly figures it out, as well as his actual feelings towards Keith, but lets it boil. The two go through more bonding moments, but as Lotor continues to intervene, Lance can't help but get jealous while Keith is utterly oblivious. Title inspired by the Jon Bellion song "The Good in Me", however the fic is not inspired by the song.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hows it goin? So I've been writing this fic for a week now and I haven't been able to publish it because I just didn't have a name. I was scrolling through some of my playlists and BOOM-- while scrolling through my casual listening playlist, I had a bunch of Jon Bellion songs and one of them was "The Good in Me". It's a good song and it sounded like a good title, but the song itself is not reflective of the fic.
> 
> so First chapter-- HERE WE GO!

 Chapter 1

 

Quiet. The room was quiet.  Keith was anxious—scared, even. He didn’t want to be Galra, _he didn’t_ , but he was. He had Galra blood, the Blade of Marmora was proof enough. The Blade was good—they were Galra, but good. Keith was certain, but maybe the others didn’t see it that way. Shiro had been fine with it, so maybe that was wrong—but maybe it was right. No one else would look at him the same again.

 

Hunk and Pidge gave looks of disgust, as if he were worthless and a waste of their time. Allura, while understandable, gave him the dirtiest look he had ever seen her give.

 

Lance… Lance, however, might have been the worst.

 

Keith had worked so hard to keep the peace with him, to show him they didn’t _have_ to be rivals. They were teammates, and they were _good_ when they worked together. He didn’t want the Galra in him to ruin the relationship they built.

 

In that moment, it shattered. He called him a liar, a dirty rotten traitor. Shiro, who Keith could have _sworn_ was right behind him, had vanished. There was no one.

 

There was no one to back him up, to defend him. He was alone.

 

Keith woke with a jump, quickly sitting up with a heavy breath. He clutched his chest, noticing his racing heart.

 

_Calm down_ , he thought. _It was a dream_.

 

It was then that he remembered that Shiro was still missing, and in his absence had appointed Keith as leader of Voltron. He bit his lip. He wasn’t a leader; he wasn’t even good at taking orders, let alone giving them. Shiro was the Black Paladin, not Keith. He was the Red Paladin, pilot of the _red_ lion, _his own_ lion. Black was Shiro’s lion, not his. Black had chosen Shiro, even detaching from Zarkon and bonded with _him_. Keith couldn’t replace that, just like Red would never replace him.

 

Keith hoped that Shiro was alive.

 

He got up, unable to sleep anymore and decided to take a walk around the castle. He didn’t bother to put on his boots and continued out to the hallway in bare feet on cold floors.

 

He was overwhelmed. They had successfully defeated Zarkon, lost a hand full of the Blade of Marmora in order to do so and watching two sacrifice themselves for the sake of Voltron, and only doboshes later Shiro went missing. Now Keith was left as leader, and it was just too much to process all at once.

 

“Can’t sleep?” Coran asked, stopping behind Keith and turning around as they crossed paths.

 

Keith stopped but only turned his head slightly. “Uh… Yeah,” Keith said, tired. “You could say that.”

 

“It must be hard,” Coran sympathized. “You and Shiro seemed to be the closest out of the bunch.”

 

Keith breathed out audibly. He looked away from Coran. “Yeah,” He replied quietly. “We were.”

 

“Don’t worry, Keith,” Coran assured. “We’ll find Shiro.”

 

“Thanks, Coran,” Keith said with a half smile, looking up at him while turning his body a bit more so he could see him. “I think I’m just gonna take a walk around the castle a bit— clear my head a little.” He pointed his thumb down the hall behind him.

 

“Alright,” Coran said. “Make sure to rest up, though; there’s no use in getting all tuckered out!” With that, the orange mustached Altean went on his merry way to what Keith could only guess was to do some more repairs.

 

Keith tucked his hands under his arms and started walking again.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time Keith had made his rounds around the castle, everyone else seemed to have migrated onto the deck. He was still walking around, of course, he had no destination so it was more like wandering, but the rest of the Paladins waited on deck.

 

They were concerned. While everyone had been affected by Shiro’s disappearance, Keith seemed to have been hit the most by it. They had seen Keith in front of them when they had found out that their leader was missing. He was in front, faster, more desperate than any of them. It was unlike the red paladin to be so inactive.

 

“Where’s Keith?” Hunk asked, looking around with a concerned expression. “He’s usually here at the same time as everyone else.”

 

“Shiro was the closest to Keith, Hunk,” Pidge explained. “I don’t think he’s in a good enough headspace to continue as normal.” She sat down on her chair and pulled up her screens, fiddling around with the functions. Technology had always been a safe space for her.

 

“Do you think he’s okay?” Hunk asked. “I mean— as okay as someone who lost a close friend can be…” Hunk paused. “Okay, maybe he’s not.” He tapped his chin with his index finger. “Do you think Keith likes sweets?”

 

“If it’s made by you, I sure hope so,” Lance replied, sitting back in his chair. “If not, it’s his loss.”

 

“Lance, I’m being serious,” Hunk said, hands on his hips. “I want to help him out, man!”  


“Keith is capable of helping himself,” Lance retorted with a jeer.

 

“That’s cold, Lance,” Pidge scolded.

 

“I think he’s perfectly fine to deal with whatever he’s dealing with on his own,” Lance said harshly.

 

“Look, I get you’re not always fond of Keith, but you’re acting like a total dick right now,” Pidge snapped, glaring at Lance.

 

“Lance, what’s going on?” Hunk asked, concerned, walking up behind Lance’s chair.

 

“I just don’t understand why Shiro picked _him_ to lead Voltron while he’s gone!” Lance shouted.

 

“I’m sure Shiro knew what he was doing, Lance,” Allura retorted. “It’s not like Shiro just picked Keith because he knew him better.”

 

“I’m sure Keith will be a great leader,” Coran said. “Not to say any of you are unfit, but I also think Shiro picked him for a reason.”

 

Lance scowled, turning his head away from the others. “He’s hot-headed and doesn’t think before he acts,” He muttered.

 

“You’ve said that before,” Pidge replied, slightly annoyed. She tapped away at the data she had pulled up concerning Matt. She sighed, realizing she wasn’t going to get a response. “Lance, I get it; we’re all upset over Shiro, but getting upset at each other won’t help. We’re still a _team_ , we’re just… missing a person.”

 

“Missing our _leader_ ,” Lance replied out of spite.

 

Pidge turned to Lance angrily. “So that doesn’t mean you need to be at Keith’s throat!” Pidge shouted. “I swear, you’re stubborn ass—!”  


 

“Pidge, language!” Hunk scolded.

 

“— _Stubborn butt_ ,” Pidge corrected, annoyed. “Needs to kiss and makeup with him!”

 

Lance could have done a spit take. He looked at Pidge as if she had said something outrageous. You didn’t just _tell_ someone to kiss someone! _Specifically_ a person’s rival!

 

“It’s an expression, Lance,” Pidge explained with a deadpan stare. She raised an eyebrow. “What, did you think I meant you should _actually_ kiss?”

 

“No!” Lance shouted quickly and defensively. He pouted and slouched in his seat.

 

“Why would she tell you to kiss someone you’re not fond of?” Allura asked, slightly confused.

 

“I _didn’t_ — nevermind,” Pidge groaned, rubbing her temples. “Where are we going now?”

 

“To the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters,” Coran explained, tapping away at his control panel.

 

“But Zarkon is gone, donzo,” Hunk said using hand gestures. “The plan worked.”

 

“I’d like to pay my respects to the fallen,” Allura said. “I’d been unfair to them at the beginning.”

 

“So we’re going to a funeral?” Pidge asked.

 

“Yes,” Allura answered. “The Marmora explained that they had a ritual burial for their fallen in respect to their traditions.”

 

“I believe they dress them up in their best armor, blade on their chests, coins on their mouths, and then cremated,” Coran explained, his index finger up in the air.

 

“But Thace already kinda,” Lance paused. “Burned.”

 

“I think they mentioned some sort of effigy for him in particular,” Coran replied.

 

“So like the Romans,” Pidge inquired.

 

“I’m not sure what those people do, but if it gives you a little insight to what we’re getting into, then yes, like the Romans,” Coran said. “So off we go!” Coran exclaimed, pointing his finger forwards before pressing the button to activate the teludav.

 

“Slav didn’t, like, _mess_ with the teludav, did he?” Allura asked, stopping Coran.

 

“ _He better not have_!” Coran screamed. “We just got that thing fixed!”

 

“You don’t think he would have, do you?” Hunk asked, sitting in his own chair now.

 

“No, of course not,” Lance assured. “I’m sure he’s just preoccupied with making his bed or something.”

 

“Are you sure about that?” Pidge said, unamused.

 

“If he did, I won’t hesitate to throw him out the airlock!” Coran warned.

 

“Coran, don’t say that!” Allura scolded. “Slav is a valuable asset.”

 

“After what he pulled with the big teludav?!” Coran argued, outraged.

 

The doors onto the deck opened with the familiar hiss that it made. Keith walked in and witnessed Coran’s annoyance.

 

“What are you guys goin’ on about?” Keith asked curiously. He went straight to his seat.

 

“Slav didn’t leave his room, right?” Coran asked, frantically.

 

“I don’t think so…?” Keith answered, slightly confused. “Why?”

 

“I don’t want him messing with the teludav!” Coran shouted.

 

“He’s not messing with the teludav, Coran,” Keith assured.

 

“Maybe I should just go check—!”

 

“Coran, just warp us!” Pidge snapped. “I want to see what kind of high tech burial ceremony the Marmora have!” Pidge was restless in her seat, bouncing up and down from being so impatient. It was obvious that she really wanted to see this ceremony.

 

Coran pouted, narrowing his eyes at the green paladin. “Fine,” he responded.

 

“Wait, so we’re going to Thace and Antok’s funeral?” Keith asked for clarification.

 

“Yes,” Allura answered. “I thought it right if we paid our respects to those who gave their lives for us.” She gave him a smile.

 

Keith was surprised. He knew that Allura was starting to warm up to the Marmora, but he didn’t think she’d agree to something he suggested. He’d wanted to go out of respect to Thace, at least. He may have only met him once, ending in his death, but he’d risked his life for Voltron and made sure the mission was successful.

 

“Off we go!” Coran exclaimed before pressing the button.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

Once they had arrived at the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters, everyone loaded into Keith’s lion and they managed to get back inside.

 

It was just as Keith remembered it when he had first come here with Shiro. It was still slightly damaged from when Red had tried to get to him after the trials, but it was still here. 

 

He landed in the same spot he had last time. They got out and headed for the headquarters.

 

“This place kind of looks trashed,” Pidge mentioned, looking at all the rubble.

 

“Yeah,” Keith agreed nervously. “That was my fault.”

 

“So what happened again?” Pidge asked as they walked.

 

“When they put me through the trials of Marmora, Red thought I was in danger, so she saw them as a threat and attacked,” Keith explained.

 

“Oh,” Pidge said, not sure what to say. 

 

Keith’s gaze wandered, not really looking for anything in particular. He thought of his dream, how everyone treated him even though that wasn’t exactly how it went when he actually told the other Paladins, Coran, and Allura that he was part Galra. Of course, he still felt like they judged him more for his Galra blood, but the dream was much worse than the truth.

 

He recalled how Hunk reacted. It wasn’t anger or disgust like his dream; he was more surprised. Of course, Coran and Allura were less than happy about it, but it wasn’t too over the top—they were conflicted more than anything. Pidge was fascinated, wondering how exactly his dad had met his mom in order to make him, And Lance… Lance was cool with it. He actually made a realization once Keith had said it.

 

_ So  _ that’s _ why when you put your hand on that hand print on the Galra control pad on the Balmera it worked! _ Is what he said. It wasn’t loathing, it was an epiphany. He hadn’t judged him, and that was the important part.

 

So then why was Keith so afraid in his dream?

 

When they met up with Kolivan, they were greeted with a warm welcome, at least as warm as the Marmora could give. They were then led to a room where two stone platforms where Antok’s body and an effigy of Thace were laid. On their chests were blades of the Marmora, now in a decorative armor, and what looked like a GAC coin over their mouths.

 

“This  _ definitely _ looks like a Roman funeral,” Pidge muttered, looking around at all the Blade members.

 

Pidge was right. If Keith remembered anything from history, Romans had a thing for putting coins on the dead’s faces for a ferry man in the afterlife. He was too afraid to ask Kolivan about it, but he assumed that it was for a similar reason.

 

Lance didn’t bother conversing with anybody at the funeral. He didn’t have a problem with the Galra in the room, but he just didn’t want to talk. He had other things on his mind. Like was he even of any use to the team? He had begun to doubt himself ever since the rescue mission for Slav— the ferret-looking alien currently muttering to himself about the probability of something going wrong in a different reality, counting how many Blade members were in the room and whether or not to count Keith.

 

Keith… It was almost always about  _ Keith _ . He was better than Lance— he could fight, he was the best pilot in their class, and not to mention  _ Shiro’s right hand man _ . Literally. What was Lance good at? Shooting? No, that wasn’t enough to amount to Keith. Lance couldn’t amount to anything.

 

At least that was how he felt.

 

Allura felt… uncomfortable around so many Galra gathered all in one room. It was the race that _ destroyed _ her home, committed mass genocide on her entire race, and committed treason against the Alteans. She wanted to make peace—that’s what Alteans had always strived for. She wanted to make things right between her and the Blade of Marmora.

 

“I thank you for coming, princess,” Kolivan said, taking a knee.

 

“No, Kolivan, I thank  _ you _ for inviting us,” Allura replied with a bow of her head. “Even after all the distrust I gave you.”

 

“We are extremely sorry about what Zarkon had done to your planet and your people, princess,” Kolivan apologized as he stood up. “We are forever at your aid.” 

 

“It’s much appreciated,” Allura replied with a wary smile. It was clear that she wasn’t fully trusting with Kolivan and his organization.

 

Pidge whined after a while. The funeral was boring, starting to look less like a Roman one. One of the things she liked about the Romans was their awesome parties that could last for weeks. They were fun funerals instead of boring and dull ones like the one she was at in that moment.

 

“Couldn’t this be a little bit more Roman? Just a little bit?” Pidge whined to Keith now. She had been whining to Hunk, but the yellow paladin slipped away from her while she wasn’t looking.

 

“I don’t know what you mean, Pidge,” Keith replied, not trying to sound as annoyed as he was.

 

“You know— bring out the party!” Pidge explained dramatically as she waved her arms in the air. “Bring some  _ life _ into this funeral!”

 

“But it’s a  _ funeral _ , Pidge,” Keith argued.

 

“Believe it or not, Roman’s used to  _ party _ , Keith!” Pidge replied. “They used to—!” Pidge leaned to her left to look around Keith, seeing a Blade of Marmora member hauling in what looked like a storage unit vaguely looking like an Earth barrel. “—Does that Galra have a  _ barrel _ ?”

 

Keith looked over his shoulder in the direction Pidge was. He, too, saw the Galra with the barrel-looking container. It wasn’t long until the rest of the Blade of Marmora noticed as well and the room started to get louder with what seemed to be their native music and the exclamations of the Galra in the room.

 

Apparently, the barrel the one guy had brought in contained a celebratory drink equal to Earth’s wine.

 

“Now  _ this _ is more like a Roman funeral!” Pidge shouted over the noise. She then disappeared into the mesh of Galra.

 

“Whoa— what’s going on?” Lance asked out loud, looking around at all the Galra now  _ partying _ as if it were a friday night at a club. “I thought this was a funeral?”

 

“It  _ is _ a funeral, pilot of the blue lion,” A Galra answered as he passed. “The Blade of Marmora celebrate the victories that the fallen had given us to honor their deaths.”

 

Lance blinked a couple times to process what he was just told. It took him a while before he finally understood that the Galra weren’t as serious as he once thought. Instead of judging them, he joined them. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right?

 

The party went on, eventually even Hunk and Keith joined in while Coran and Allura just stayed at the sidelines, watching them enjoy themselves. Hunk had started a conga line with some of the Galra, Keith behind him and the Galra behind him. Pidge was doing her best not to get caught drinking underage, failing to do so, and Lance was dancing and eventually started mingling with some of the Galrans. 

 

“Lance!” Pidge called out, shoving her way through the crowd of Galra. “Lance—! What are you doing?” She asked as she saw him learning a Galran dance from Kolivan.

 

“Dancing! What’s it look like?” He answered, looking over his shoulder. “When in Rome, right?”

 

“Wait, so the funeral  _ does _ remind you of a Roman funeral, too?” She asked, surprised.

 

“Oh, so  _ that’s _ why this seemed so familiar!” Lance said upon the realization. Pidge groaned, pressing her palm onto her forehead. “Oh, hey Hunk!”

 

Hunk and Keith were getting closer with the conga line, now twice as long as it had been when Pidge had last seen it.

 

“Lance!” Hunk shouted with a huge smile on his face. “Join in!” He said.

 

Without hesitation, Lance squeezed between Keith and Hunk to join them in the conga line.

 

“Wait, Lance—!” Before she could get her question in, Lance and the conga line had vanished within the mosh pit of Galra partying their day away.

 

She grumbled to herself, frustrated that she wasn’t going to get to try the Galran wine. She crossed her arms and pouted, trying to think of another plan. When she had tried to grab a glass herself, Coran had rushed over and took it away from her, scolded her, and went back to Allura’s side sipping her stolen glass of Galran wine. Lance, Keith, and Hunk, the only other option she might have, were now preoccupied with the conga line.

 

She was never going to get a taste of that wine.

 

Lance, Keith, and Hunk were having a great time. They had kept the conga line going for a long amount of time until finally the three agreed to grab a drink. Sure, the three of them were still underage, but in some countries on Earth, they were old enough and they looked old enough anyway, so what was the harm?

 

“Are you sure we should be drinking this?” Keith asked, looking at the barrel of Galran wine. 

 

“You’re right, Keith,” Lance agreed as he got himself and Hunk a glass. “You shouldn’t drink since you’re our designated driver.” He patted Keith’s shoulder with a shit eating grin. “Good thinking, buddy!” He and Hunk clinked glasses. “Cheers!” The two took a swig.

 

Keith grumbled, glaring at the blue paladin. “Whatever,” He muttered, crossing his arms.

 

“ _ Guys _ —!” Pidge grunted, pushing two Galra out of her way. She stood in front of the three older paladins with an exhausted breath. “Lance, Hunk, Keith!  _ Please _ ! Sneak me a glass?” She pleaded with her hands folded together.

 

Lance looked at her, then his own glass before he handed the glass to her. “Here, take mine,” He said.

 

Pidge’s eyes sparkled, looking at the glass and taking it. “ _ Thank you so much _ !” She thanked with a giddy expression.

 

Lance grabbed another glass and poured himself another. “No problem, Pidge. That’s what friends are for.” 

 

Pidge then hugged Lance from behind in gratitude. She let go, Lance looking over his shoulder confused. “I’m serious, Lance, thanks.”

 

“Like I said,” Lance repeated with a shrug. “No problem.” Pidge then snuck away from Coran’s line of vision to drink the wine.

 

“Why did you do that?” Keith asked.

 

“Because she wanted to try it out,” Lance replied simply, taking a drink. “What’s the problem?”

 

“She’s  _ fourteen _ , Lance!” Keith scolded.

 

“So what?” Lance retorted. “A glass of space wine isn’t going to hurt anybody, Keith.”

 

“She’s underage!” Keith argued.

 

“Don’t start acting like a responsible person now,  _ Keith _ ,” Lance snapped. “Stop trying to act like a leader, ‘cause you’re  _ not _ .”

 

“What? I’m not—!”

 

“Don’t deny it, Keith!” Lance interrupted. “You’re only acting responsible because Shiro put  _ you _ in charge!” He jabbed his index finger into Keith’s chest.

 

“That’s not—!”

 

“I don’t want to hear your  _ excuses _ ,” Lance hissed.

 

“Lance, back off,” Hunk warned, pushing his friend back away from Keith. “What’s going on with you?” He asked, concerned.

  
The blue paladin huffed before storming off, Keith watching with a worried expression.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

The funeral had gone and passed, leaving a tense atmosphere. What Keith had feared in his dream was surfacing, but it wasn’t because he was Galra. He didn’t understand why Lance was so angry. Keith had been right that night about Pidge being too young to drink.

 

Keith decided not to confront Lance about it. He didn’t want to make the situation worse.

 

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge regretted their decision from last night that morning when the three of them all had horrible hangovers. The same went for Coran who drank every glass Pidge had tried to sneak past his vision. Instead of joining Keith and Allura on the deck, the four others stayed in their rooms battling their headaches.

 

Meanwhile, Keith and Allura had a nice chat while they cruised the galaxy.

 

“So what’s wrong with Pidge?” Allura asked, sitting on a step, Keith as well.

 

“Lance snuck a glass of that wine to her while Coran wasn’t looking, so she’s in the same boat as them,” Keith explained with crossed arms.

 

Lance had gotten up to go grab a glass of water from the kitchen when he heard Allura talking. He snuck up against the door to the deck and listened in on her conversation with who he assumed was either Coran or Keith.

 

Allura groaned. “Why did he think that was a good idea?” She asked. “Pidge is underdeveloped, is she not?”

 

“That’s what I said,” Keith agreed. “But Lance wouldn’t listen.” 

 

So it was Keith she was talking to. 

 

The red paladin sighed. “Maybe Shiro was wrong to make me his replacement.”

 

“Don’t be like that, Keith,” Allura argued, placing her hand on his knee. “I’m sure Shiro knew  _ exactly _ what he was doing when he put you in charge in his absence.”

 

Keith contemplated discussing his doubts with Allura, but he decided against it.

 

“It must be so hard for you,” Allura mentioned with sincerity. “Losing Shiro like this.”

 

Keith didn’t speak. He didn’t have any words.

 

“I saw how close you two were before you went with Hunk to get the scaultrite,” Allura explained.

 

“He was like a brother to me,” Keith mentioned quietly, looking away.

 

“He  _ is _ like a brother to you,” Allura corrected making Keith look at her. “We’ll find him, Keith; I promise.”

 

Lance looked to the floor. He had known Keith and Shiro were close, even thinking that was the main reason he picked Keith to be the new leader of Voltron. He began to wonder if he was wrong.

 

“This is the  _ second time _ , Allura,” Keith replied. “He’s gone missing  _ twice _ now, and last time he was gone for over a year.” He sighed and turned away again with a grim expression. “Maybe this time he’ll be gone forever.”

 

“Now, don’t you say that, Keith!” Allura scolded.

 

“Where do you even think he went?” Keith asked. “He just  _ vanished _ .”

 

“I’m…” Allura paused to think. “I’m not sure, but he can’t be gone forever.”

 

Lance felt guilty. Maybe it was wrong of him to snap at Keith last night at the funeral. He started to feel as if he’d been nothing but a nuisance to the team as of late. First it was Shiro picking Keith over him to go into the Marmora headquarters, then it was his foolishness during the Slav rescue mission, and now  _ this _ .

 

Maybe Lance really was a seventh wheel.

 

It was then that Lance started to feel a little dizzy. His stomach churned from what he guessed was the after effects of drinking the night before. He grunted from the sudden urge to vomit. He decided to start heading towards his original destination, but lost his balance, making a loud thud as he hit the floor.

 

He groaned.

 

The door to the deck opened, Keith and Allura standing in the doorway. They looked around, wondering what could have made that sound only to see Lance laying on the ground disoriented.

 

“Lance!” The two of them shouted, worried.

 

“What happened?” Allura asked as the two rushed to his side.

 

“No big deal,” He replied, dazed. “Just tripped over nothing.”

 

“Are you sure?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow. “You look sick.”

 

“Come on, get to your feet,” Allura instructed as she and Keith held onto his arms to help hoist him up. “Let’s get you back to your room to rest.”

 

“What were you even doing out of bed?” Keith asked, confused while they took him back to his room. 

 

“I was getting water,” Lance answered.

 

“We’ll get you some once we get you back to bed,” Allura explained. “I think you’ve had a little too much Galran spirits to be up and about.”

 

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea, Lance,” Keith said.

 

“Whatever, mullet,” Lance muttered, groggy. He yawned as they sat him down on his bed.

 

“We’ll be back with some water,” Allura said. “Come on Keith.”

 

“Why can’t it just be the princess,” Lance whined before he curled up into a ball.

 

“ _ We’ll be back _ ,” Allura repeated, sternly as she headed out with Keith.

 

Lance grumbled as they left. Allura sighed, shaking her head and disappointed that the blue paladin was acting like a small child.

 

“The nerve of that boy!” Allura groaned, throwing her hands in the air.

 

“It  _ is _ Lance, princess,” Keith mentioned.

 

“I wish he’d grow up,” Allura muttered. 

 

“He’s not  _ that _ bad, Allura,” Keith argued.

 

“What makes you say that?” Allura asked curiously as they neared the kitchen.

 

“The blue lion chose him? He’s a good shooter? He’s actually pretty smart on the battlefield, not to mention how good of a shooter he is,” Keith listed, counting the things on his fingers. “He also made it into the Garrison.”

 

“You said he’s a good shot twice, Keith,” Allura mentioned.

 

Keith blinked twice. He did?

 

“I mean, he’s a good shot, though,” Keith said, trying to sound as if he meant to say it twice.

 

“Well, you make a good point, Keith,” Allura agreed, dismissing the fact that Keith did, in fact, say it twice. “Although, I’m not sure what this Garrison is, but I guess I’m just being too hard on him. And to think I thought the two of you disliked each other.”

 

“I don’t dislike Lance,” Keith said as Allura grabbed a cup from the compartment with all the dining utensils. “He can be annoying when he keeps making a competition out of everything, but we’re a good team when we cooperate.” He paused. “I wouldn’t mind it being like that all the time; we  _ are _ a team, right?”

 

“That’s a good mindset,” Allura mentioned as she finished filling the cup with water. “Are you still sure Shiro was wrong about you being a good leader?” She asked with a grin.

 

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Princess, I’m  _ not _ a leader,” He argued. “I can barely  _ take _ orders, let alone  _ give _ them.”

 

“At least you admit it,” Allura remarked. 

 

The two of them started heading back to Lance’s room. “That’s not the point, Allura!” Keith protested. “I don’t  _ want _ to be a leader, I’m just a pilot!”

 

“An amazing pilot who the Red lion, mind you the  _ most difficult _ lion, chose who can also fight fairly well,” Allura argued, turning her head towards the red paladin.

 

“Who is also hot-headed, lacks a lot of discipline, and doesn’t think when he’s riled up,” Keith recited the same words that the Garrison had told him when he was kicked out. “Oh, and not to mention  _ I’m half Galra _ .”

 

“A hot-headed, half Galra who is loyal to Voltron and took down Zarkon with the rest of the paladins,” Allura argued again. “And who Shiro, whom the Black lion chose, in turn chose  _ you _ to lead Voltron in his place.” She gave Keith a stern look. “Shiro must have had a very good reason to let you lead the team, Keith.”

 

“What, ‘potential’?” Keith muttered in quotations. “Allura,  _ that isn’t good enough _ . Just because I have it in me, doesn’t mean I have it  _ right now _ .”

 

Allura huffed, realizing that she wasn’t going to get it through to Keith. She knew she was right about the matter, but he just wasn’t taking it. She dropped the subject once they reached Lance’s room.

 

“Here’s your water Lance,” Allura announced, handing the cup to him.

 

Lance took it, narrowing his eyes at Keith then gave the princess a grin and a wink. Allura glared at him.

 

Keith rolled his eyes.  _ Typical _ , he thought with crossed arms.

 

“Come on, Keith,” Allura announced, leading Keith out of Lance’s room. “We should continue our little  _ discussion _ .”

 

“Allura—!” Keith protested before she shoved him out the door.

 

The princess made sure that they were well down the hall before speaking again. She stepped in front of him and held his shoulders square with her own. She looked at him with a stern look. “Why do you think potential isn’t enough to be a leader?” She asked.

 

“Because potential isn’t  _ skill _ , Allura,” Keith argued.

 

“It  _ is _ , Keith!” Allura protested. “You just need to awaken it!”

 

“Why are we talking about this?” Keith asked with a scowl. 

 

“I just don’t understand why you’re so against being leader of Voltron,” Allura answered. “I’m sure you’d be a great leader if you just tried—!”

 

“—And end up like Zarkon?” Keith finished harshly.

 

Allura was taken aback by the red paladin’s statement. Was this truly what Keith was so worried about? She let go of Keith with a blink or two and a softer expression.

 

“Keith, I…”   
  


“If it’s okay with you, I think I’m just gonna train a bit,” Keith said. He turned away from Allura and headed towards the training deck.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

“Hunk, you didn’t even have that much of it,” Lance muttered, patting his friend’s back as he vomited into the toilet in the yellow paladin’s room. It had been a couple vargas and Lance’s headache finally went away. He had come to check on Hunk only to find him curled up in the bathroom after a hefty throw-up session.

 

“I’m tellin’ you man, that wine didn’t sit so well in my stomach,” Hunk said with a distressed tone as he tried to keep himself from throwing up. “And I don’t think—!  _ Oh, God— _ !” Hunk leaned forward into the toilet seat and more of his bile came out of his mouth.

 

Lance continued to rub Hunk’s back, genuinely concerned for his buddy but just as equally disgusted by the sound his friend was making.

 

Hunk groaned, exhausted by how much of his lunch left his stomach. “And I don’t think the movement of the ship is helping any,” Hunk finished. He looked as if he were going to fall asleep on the seat.

 

“I’m sorry, Hunk,” Lance apologized. “Do you want me to get anything?”

 

“A Tums, maybe?” Hunk asked.

 

“Alright, buddy; I’ll see what I can find,” Lance said with a nod as he stood up.

 

“Thanks, buddy,” Hunk said. “You’re the best.”

 

“Anything for my best pal,” Lance replied before he headed out to find some stomach medicine for Hunk.

 

While Lance searched, his mind started to think, and when his mind started thinking it had the tendency to go to places Lance didn’t want it to. It seemed that it wanted to continue to go to his looming fear of being an invaluable asset to the team.

 

_ There’s no way you’re useless, Lance _ ! He told himself.  _ They can’t form Voltron without you _ !

 

_ The Blue Lion is the most accepting Lion between the five _ .

 

But Blue chose him, right? She chose Lance out of the four other paladins, right? What if he was wrong? What if he just accidentally figured out how to get through the barrier? What if Keith had knocked? Would he have gotten the barrier open too?

 

Maybe Lance was just overthinking things. When he thinks too much, he tended to go to dark places. He decided to force himself to focus on finding something to help Hunk.

 

Lance started with the medical bay where the pods were. He didn’t know if there was some sort of storage unit since he really had no other reason to look in the first place until now. There was, but he couldn’t read any of the labels since they were all in Altean.

 

“Crap,” Lance muttered under his breath. He dropped the bottle of medicine in his hand after trying to decypher what it read. He sighed, staring at the pile of pill bottles and boxes of medical supplies. “Maybe Coran could help me out,” He said out loud before closing the compartment and heading off to wherever the mustached Altean could be.

 

“Coran!” He called out with his hands in his jean pockets. “Jeez, where is that guy?” His eyes wandered as he walked down the hallway. He noticed Keith walking out of the training deck with a towel around his neck.

 

Lance stopped at the sight of the red paladin. This caused Keith to look in his direction and did the same.

 

“Lance,” Keith said out loud in a questioning tone.

 

“Keith,” Lance said with a more dissatisfied tone.

 

“You feeling better?” Keith asked cautiously.

 

“Yeah,” Lance answered simply. 

 

“So,” Keith said awkwardly. “What are you doing?”

 

“Finding some Altean Tums or whatever for Hunk,” Lance explained. “I’m trying to find Coran so he can help me.”

 

“I think he’s doing some maintenance near the crystal?” Keith mentioned, trying to help. “If not I’m sure Allura could help you, she’s on the deck.”

 

  
“Uh, thanks,” Lance said, uncertain about his rival being so helpful. He walked off passed Keith before he stopped again, wondering why he was training so early in the day. He turned his head towards the red paladin again. “What were you doing training so early?”

 

“To clear my head,” Keith answered, wiping his sweat from his face and neck.

 

“Huh.” Lance didn’t know what must have been on his mind to have to clear his head. The red paladin always seemed to play it cool. “Whatever,” He muttered as they both went opposite directions.

 

He eventually found Coran in the kitchen dealing with another malfunction in the food goo dispenser, however this time it wasn’t as severe as when the Galran Empire crystal had infected the castle.

 

“What do you need, Lance?” Coran announced, wiping his hands of the goo he’d cleaned out from the hose. 

 

“Hunk’s got an upset stomach,” Lance explained. “Do you guys have like an Altean medicine for that?”

 

“Absolutely!” Coran confirmed, his fist on his hips. “Follow me!”

 

Coran led him back to the medical bay where he took out a bottle of orange pills and handed it to Lance.

 

“Here you are!” He said as the blue paladin took the bottle. “I sure hope Hunk feels better.”

 

“Me too,” Lance agreed. He looked at the bottle which had what looked like an Altean cartoon character.

 

“Just swallow it with water,” Coran instructed. “No more than two a quintant, though; we don’t want an overdose!”

 

“Got it,” Lance said with a nod. “Thank’s Coran.”

 

“Not a problem, young paladin!” Coran said with a grin.

 

With that Lance headed back to Hunk’s room with the Altean version of Tums. He stared at the bottle as he thought of what could have possibly been running through Keith’s head.

 

He remembered that Allura had said they were discussing something before they had given Lance the cup of water. What would it have been about? Why would Allura need to speak with Keith? What would Allura have said to force him to cool his head? It was odd. He had no answer for any of these questions.

 

_ But why would you? You’re a seventh wheel. _

 

Lance shook his head violently to get that thought out of his head. No. He wasn’t a seventh wheel; he just  _ couldn’t _ be.

 

He quickly rushed to Hunk’s room to give him the bottle of medicine.

Keith headed towards the showers, realizing he’d gone for a couple of vargas and reeked of body odor. He knew he’d trained for a while since he went until he cleared his head, but he didn’t know it took so long to do so.

 

He got in the shower and turned on the water. He’d set the water to a soothing warm temperature. He had thought it good for his sore muscles after training for so long. For a while he just stood there letting the warm water roll down his body. It was funny how having time to think in the shower led to thoughts that were mind numbingly melancholy.

 

He remembered the calm atmosphere his shack in the middle of the canyon had. He liked quiet, but maybe it was too quiet. Without his dad the shack was lonely, and he’d used that same shack to find Shiro. It was hilarious because he was basically in the same boat as before, only this time the shack was the castle of lions and he had more than just himself.

 

If he had the rest of the team, though, why did he feel more alone than ever?

 

He clung his hand to the tiled wall, frustrated with himself.

 

Why did he need to be the new leader of Voltron? Why did Shiro have to disappear again? It was all so  _ unfair _ .

 

Instead of dwelling on it, he decided to wash his hair, scrubbed his body down, and finished his shower.

 

After dressing himself, he grabbed a new towel and dried his hair the best he could. When he pulled the towel off his head, he saw Lance out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head slightly to see him covered in what looked like a stain of some sort on his shirt.

 

“Wow,” Lance said bluntly. “I didn’t expect stinky mullet Keith to take a shower.”

 

Keith glared at Lance. “Whatever,” He muttered. “What got on you?” He asked, clearly annoyed by Lance’s snide remark.

 

“Hunk, barfed on me when I gave him the medication,” Lance sighed. He took off his shirt and held out the soiled shirt away from himself. “So, what, is this your first shower in a month?”

 

Keith growled, his anger boiling. “I always take a shower after I train,” He grumbled as he hung the towel around his neck.

 

“Oh, really?” Lance questioned, sarcastically. “Never woulda guessed.”

 

Keith could have sworn steam was rising from his own head.

 

“Do you  _ always _ have to pick a fight with me?” Keith asked, irritated.

 

“Jeez, calm down; I was joking,” Lance explained, giving hand gestures trying to get Keith to calm down.

 

Lance was always irritating— _ infuriating _ . He had no idea how Shiro put up with him, and he was pretty sure it took everything in Shiro’s power to put up with Slav. Lance was less irritating than the ferret-looking alien, but still just the same.

 

But maybe Keith was over reacting. Lance had his own skillsets that counteracted his personality, and when it came to it he put his playfulness aside for missions that had serious consequences. 

 

Keith sighed before looking away from Lance and walked out.

 

As the red paladin walked back to his room, he cleaned out the water in his ear. He had too much on his mind to deal with Lance, and there was too much to worry about. Shiro was missing, as well as Pidge’s father and brother, and he had this gut feeling that told him the Galran Empire wasn’t done yet. Haggar was still alive and that could mean trouble.

 

He sat on his bed and pulled out his Blade of Marmora knife. He looked over the blade itself and ran his fingers over the Blade’s mark on the hilt.

 

_ You know who you are, Keith _ , he assured himself in his head.  _ You’re a paladin. The  _ red _ paladin _ . _ There’s no way you’ll turn out like Zarkon _ .

 

No matter how many times Keith told himself, he still had the looming fear of the corruption, the possibility that he’d turn evil like Zarkon. He felt like if he stayed with Voltron, he would be corrupted as the head of the robot. He felt he’d be seduced somehow because of his Galra half. He gave a bleak expression, biting his lip just thinking about it.

 

After a while, Keith had shifted to laying on his bed, holding his knife above him, shining the light of his room on the blade. He kept thinking of what to do with nothing coming to mind. Should he try to be leader? Should he leave so that he didn’t cause trouble with Voltron? 

 

No. He’d done that before with Allura and he’d only cause more harm than good. Maybe he should at least try like Allura had advised, but any sign of trouble because of him, he would leave. That was his decision.

 

Keith was caught off guard as a loud and familiar sound resonated within the castle walls that unsettled him.

 

The alarms had gone off and Keith was sure it wasn’t a test.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

“Allura, what’s going on?” Lance shouted with concern as the four paladins stepped on deck. “I thought the Galran Empire fell with Zarkon!”

 

Allura and Coran were currently at their stations, the four paladins heading towards their own, pausing only a moment to look at the empty chair that Shiro was to occupy. They started to realize that anything from then on they’d have to deal with it without their leader.

 

No, that was wrong; they’d have to deal with it but with Keith as their leader.

 

In front of them was what looked like a Galra ship and a small fleet of Galra fighters at the ready.

 

“I thought so, too,” Allura answered Lance, the alarms still blaring in their ears and the screens flashing red. “But it seems we’ve missed something.”

 

“Who would be attacking us now if Zarkon is gone?” Pidge questioned, tapping away at her dashboard. “You don’t think he had a kid, do you?”

 

“Of course not—!” Allura stopped dead in her tracks. She’d forgotten about Zarkon’s son, Lotor. She gasped with wide eyes. 

 

“What now?” Hunk asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“You don’t think he’s still alive, do you?” Coran questioned the princess, looking behind him to look at Allura.

 

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Allura answered. “Zarkon is still alive, so who says his son isn’t?”

 

“But then that would mean…” Coran trailed off, fearing the worst.

 

“This means that our fight isn’t over,” Pidge said quietly, shocked at the idea.

 

“Wait, Zarkon has a son?” Lance asked, dumbfounded.

 

“His name is Prince Lotor,” Allura explained, visibly uncomfortable about the subject. “Son of Zarkon and the heir of the Galran Empire.”

 

It was then that the screen started to receive a video call from an unknown source; however, Allura and Coran had an idea of who it might be.

 

“We’re getting a call, princess,” Coran announced. “What do we do?”

 

“Take it,” Allura ordered with a serious expression.

 

“Yes, princess,” Coran said with a nod. He pressed a button and the call went through.

 

On the screen was a thin faced Galra with native markings on his face, the typical solid yellow eyes, and on his head sat an elaborate helmet much like Zarkons, but much more… flashy more than functional. He also had long silver locks underneath the helmet and an evil grin drawn on his face.

 

“Greetings, Princess Allura,” the Galra announced. “It’s been ten thousand years; you haven’t changed a bit.”

 

“And  _ you _ look as ugly as ever,  _ Lotor _ ,” Allura spat back.

 

Lotor chuckled. “Feisty as always, princess—!” He paused, a surprised look on his face as he noticed the young paladins in their seats. “—Oh, but these paladins are so  _ young _ . Desperate, were you?”

 

“I’ll have you know these paladins are just as capable as any other paladin of Voltron,” Allura defended with a proud posture.

 

“But it looks like you’re missing one,” Lotor argued with the same grin growing larger. “You can’t form the thing if you don’t have the head, now can you?”

 

Allura growled, glaring harshly at the Galran prince.

 

“Haggar has told me everything, about you, your little  _ paladins _ ,” Lotor hissed, now with a snarl. “How you took down my father, and how you have a Galra amongst your ranks.”

 

“ _ That Galra is only half and his name is Keith _ ,” Lance hissed, harshly.

 

Keith looked behind him in surprise. Did Lance defend him?

 

“Okay, fledgling; then who is this  _ Keef _ you speak of?” Lotor retorted with an unnerving grin.

 

“It’s  _ Keith _ ,” the red paladin announced with a glower. “And I’m a  _ paladin _ .”

 

“Indeed,” Lotor agreed, a claw on his lips. He eyed Keith as if to examine every feature he had. “You look like a fledgling, but your actions, your  _ personality _ — it just  _ screams _ Galra,” he mentioned with a creepy grin.

 

“I’m not—!”

 

“Deny it all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that you have Galra blood,” Lotor interrupted, his chin resting in the palm of his hand with a coy expression. “You intrigue me,  _ keef _ .”

 

Lance snickered at the Galra Prince and his pronunciation of the red paladin’s name.

 

“ _ Keith _ ,” he corrected. He felt so uncomfortable with how Lotor was treating him. “It’s  _ Keith _ .”

 

“I look forward to seeing you in battle,  _ Keith _ ,” Lotor replied with a wink before closing the call. The alarms and flashing lights ceased once the call had ended.

 

Hunk and Lance bursted out laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?” Allura asked confused, turning towards the yellow and blue paladins.

 

“Ignore them,” Pidge answered, tapping away at her dashboard again. “They’re acting like twelve year olds.”

 

“ _ Keef _ ,” Lance mocked, clutching at his gut. “Hey,  _ Keef _ ! How are you doing over there?” He joked, laughing.

 

Keith grumbled with a deadpan stare, his face slightly turned pink.

 

“They’re probably not going to let you live that down, Keith,” Pidge explained, keeping her attention towards her dashboard.

 

“Just because the prince of the Galran Empire calls me that, you two don’t need to!” Keith argued with a glare.

 

“I’m sorry, Keith, but—” Hunk paused to laugh some more. “—It’s just  _ so funny _ !”

 

“Lighten up a little,  _ Keef _ ,” Lance joked, leaning forward in his seat with a laugh. “It’s just a joke.”

 

Keith growled, crossing his arms.

 

“Lance, stop that,” Allura chided. “If you know Keith’s actual name, why do you say it wrong?”

 

“I don’t think you get the point of the joke, princess,” Lance said with a chuckle. “It’s just a joke about how Lotor said it.”

 

“It’s all in good fun,” Hunk agreed.

 

“This isn’t the time!” Keith argued. “We should think of a plan to deal with prince Lotor!”

 

“Keith has a point,” Coran agreed. “Lotor won’t wait for us.”

 

“Unless it’s part of his agenda,” Allura argued, rolling her eyes. “Alright then, Keith; what should we do.”

 

Keith was about to argue about why they were looking at him, but he soon remembered that he was appointed leadership.

 

He didn’t know what to do. He felt the pressure that the other paladins were putting on him. Keith  _ wasn’t _ a leader, he never was and he never planned to be, but he had just decided to try and act the part.

 

Without Shiro or a pilot for the black lion, they were unable to form Voltron, that much was a given. They only had the four limbs of the giant robot and there was only so much their lions could do on their own, but the fleet was small, and while it was difficult at the beginning when they hadn’t been able to willingly form Voltron, they could still do it with just four lions.

 

“The best course of action might just be to fight,” Keith explained. “The fleet isn’t too big and even without Voltron, we still have four lions with new abilities.”

 

“But we don’t know what Lotor is capable of,” Pidge mentioned. “He could be able to do just as much with a small fleet as a normal commander can with a larger one.”

 

Pidge had a point. They didn’t know much about the galra prince besides how annoying he was. Annoying didn’t always mean stupid.

 

“Then we should try and get some more information,” Keith said. “Pidge would need to decipher the information from the ship, having a couple of us go in and get the files, get the information and get out then have Pidge decode it,” He explained.

 

“I think I could manage,” Pidge agreed. “I’ve done it before, but it might be a little bit more difficult since I have. They might have upped the security after our last encounter with Zarkon.”

 

“Great,” Allura said, clapping her hands together. “Keith, Lance, you two will go in with one of the pods that has one of Pidge’s cloaking devices, and Pidge and Hunk will fight off the fleet, clearing a path for the two of them.”

 

“Then we have a plan,” Pidge agreed, closing her dashboard and standing up.

 

“Let’s suit up,” Keith instructed.

 

The four paladins rushed to put on their armor, both Pidge and Hunk heading to their hangars while Lance and Keith headed towards the pods. They all strapped in, the green and yellow lions leaving their hangars and off to fight the fleet.

 

“We’re getting into position,” Pidge announced through the headset. “Keith, Lance, are you guys ready?”

 

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Lance muttered.

 

“We’re heading out,” Keith replied, flying the pod out of the hangar. “Turning on the cloaking device now.” He flipped a switch and the pod went out of sight to the naked eye.

 

“Roger that,” Hunk replied. “We’ll clear the way.”

 

“Good, the cloak is working,” Pidge said. She flipped a couple switches and pressed a button on her dashboard, locking onto the invisible form of the pod. “I’ve got a reading on you.”

 

“Alright, let’s do this guys!” Lance announced in pure optimism despite the looming anxiety that the plan might fail.

 

Keith flew behind Pidge and Hunk while the two skillfully cleared the way for them. Everything was going according to plan. The fleet was a piece of cake.

 

_ Lotor won’t wait for us, unless it’s a part of his agenda. _ Lance recalled what Allura and Coran had said about the Galran prince. What if it  _ was _ part of Lotor’s agenda? For the paladins to sneak onto their ship and get more information?

 

He might have realized too late as once the red and blue paladins had gotten into the ship, several druids were waiting for them.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

“Quiznak,” Lance hissed under his breath, annoyed that he hadn’t realized their mistake. The two of them hid behind a pillar as the druids grew closer, Lance having to pull the red paladin with him so that he didn’t charge at them recklessly.

 

“How did they figure us out so fast?” Keith questioned in a whisper, just as annoyed, bayard still in hand.

 

“Didn’t you hear Allura?” Lance argued, holding up his bayard, ready to shoot the druids. “Lotor must have an agenda and he might have suspected that we’d try to get that information.”

 

“Well, then, what should we do?” He asked, looking at Lance.

 

Lance looked at Keith in surprise. “You want  _ me _ to come up with a backup plan?”

 

“Well, I mean you’ve had good ideas before,” Keith muttered.

 

“Guys, what’s going on?” Pidge asked.

 

“Druids,” Keith answered.

 

“Lotor must have known we were going to do this,” Lance explained, peeking his head to take a look at how many druids there were. He counted four. 

 

He looked around, trying to find a way around them.

 

Currently, they were in a hallway. They had no idea where the hallway behind him led, but they also knew that the hallway in front of them had four druids waiting for them to their left. They could sneak forward, passed the druids and try to outrun them being that they were an extreme distance away from their hiding spot, or they could move down the hallway behind them and try to get an escape route from Pidge.

 

“Hey, Pidge,” Lance called through the headset.

 

“Yeah, Lance?” Pidge asked with a sigh.

 

“Do you think you’d be able to hack in and get a layout of the ship for us?” Lance asked, watching the druids as they started gliding down the hall faster. “If you can, could you hurry? Those druids are gaining on us.”

 

“On it,” Pidge replied.

 

“Finding a different route?” Keith asked.

 

“Yep,” Lance replied.

 

“See, I was right,” Keith said. “You thought of a really good idea.”

 

It was then that Lance realized that Keith was being genuine, that he wasn’t joking about believing he could come up with a good plan. He didn’t think the red paladin would compliment him. It made no sense, he acted as if he were the annoying friend he had to deal with.

 

“Okay.” Pidge broke the awkward silence. It pulled Lance out of the equally as awkward stare he was giving to Keith. “If you head behind you there’s a group of another hallways that you can probably take. Sending a map now.”

 

“Got it,” Keith replied. He tapped his gauntlet, a digital map showing up on the screen.

 

“There,” Lance said, pointing to an area on the map. “We can go down this hallway and get to one of their computer thingies.”

 

“Let’s go,” Keith said, quickly dashing down the hallway, not waiting for Lance.

 

Lance groaned with a deadpan stare, slightly peeved with how instantaneous Keith had left him behind.

 

“God dammit, Keith,” He muttered under his breath as he chased after him.

 

Keith, being the impulsive paladin he is, ended up clearing their path of any passing Galra or Galra robots. Of course, several had some close calls, but Lance obviously had his back.

 

“Thanks,” Keith mentioned as the blue paladin once again shot a Galra soldier who was gaining on his six.

 

“You know, it’d be awesome if you  _ didn’t _ charge into every fight by impulse, I wouldn’t have to cover your six all the time,” Lance muttered as they ran down the hall to their destination.

 

“Why?” Keith asked. “I got you here.”

 

Lance was taken aback by Keith’s statement. Did he actually  _ enjoy _ being around him?

 

The blue paladin slowed down. “Wait,” He blurted out as he came to a stop.

 

Keith turned his head to see the blue paladin stop. He did as well. “What?”

 

“You mean you don’t…” Lance paused. “You don’t think I’m a nuisance?”

 

Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance. “No. Why?” He asked.

 

Before Lance could say anything, he noticed the familiar thin figures of the druids coming around the corner of the hall. His eyes widened, his bayard raised.

 

“Keith!” He shouted. The red paladin turned his head and saw the same thing the blue paladin was seeing.

 

The four druids, once they saw the two, abruptly broke into a rapid glide towards them. This triggered Keith to charge on an impulse, something Lance was afraid of.

 

“Keith, don’t—!” Of course, Lance couldn’t get through to the red paladin who seemed to have been subject to his blind rage.

 

Keith slashed his bayard at the four druids, all of them swiftly dodging his attack. Keith then retaliated as best he could, this time with his Blade of Marmora knife that he willed into the sword. He aimed it at one of them, only to bounce off the wall after the druid dodged it. Behind the red paladin as he charged at the same druid, another lifted their hand up towards Keith.

 

Lance went as quick as he could and shot at the druid aiming it’s magic at the red paladin, but he was a tick late and Keith was hit by the purple magic.

 

Keith was forced into the wall. He tumbled from the hit and laid visibly motionless, his bayard sliding away from him and reverting back into its simpler form. Keith’s Blade of Marmora sword had done the same and reverted back into its knife form.

 

Lance panicked, and instead of thinking, he gave a hostile expression and shot wildly at the druids, causing the four to flee. It seemed that they hadn’t expected the blue paladin to attack so violently. Once they were gone, Lance rushed to Keith.

 

“Keith!” Lance screamed as he crouched down to the red paladin. “Buddy, are you okay— _ holy shit _ ,” Lance gasped as he pulled Keith onto his back.

 

Keith groaned, obviously in pain, but that wasn’t what Lance was so freaked out about.

 

_ Keith’s skin was purple _ .

 

“What’s happening in there?” Hunk shouted, his voice extremely anxious and concerned.

 

“I— I don’t— I’m not—!” Lance took a deep and shaking breath, trying to stay as calm as he could. “—I’m not sure what they just did to him,” He managed to say. 

 

“Lance, what happened?” Hunk asked again. “Is Keith okay?!”

 

Lance breathed out, just as shaky as it had gone in. “I… I don’t know.”

 

“ _ Hunk, watch your six _ !” Pidge hissed as she blasted at another Galra fighter.

 

“Sorry!” Hunk apologized.

 

“Keith, buddy, come on; we gotta move!” Lance pleaded, desperately.

 

Keith rolled onto his side, grunting and trying to get himself up. It was hard as the hit he had taken from that druid had taken a lot out of him and his back was in serious pain.

 

Lance shot at any Galra that came around the corner, covering Keith as he struggled to get up. Once he was at least on his feet, Lance hoisted the red paladin on his shoulder and helped him into the room they were supposed to go into.

 

The blue paladin gently let Keith sit against the wall then barricaded the door so that none of the other Galra or druids could come in.

 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, kneeling down next to Keith.

 

“I’m fine,” Keith managed to answer. “Hunk, I’m okay,” He said through the headset. His voice sounded pained, his face in agony. He pulled off his helmet and held his hand up against his temple that was pounding from hitting against the wall. Gradually, his vision focused on the purple tint to his hand and the sharp tips of his nails. “What…?” He mumbled under his breath as he pulled his hand away from his temple and stared at his palm.

 

“I think that druid…” Lance began quietly. He noticed the whites of Keith’s eyes turning yellow, his irises remaining the same grey blue-purple color they always had been. “I think they did something to you with their magic.”   
  
“I’m…” Keith couldn’t quite comprehend what had happened to him. “...I’m  _ purple _ .”

 

Keith was afraid. Lance could tell that he wasn’t taking it well.

 

“Okay, just rest here for a while,” Lance said as calm as he could, holding his hands towards Keith.

 

He got up and rushed over to the computer. He tapped his gauntlet and his holographic screen came up. “Pidge, I’m in position.”

 

“Linking you now,” Pidge said.

 

His screen flashed Pidge’s hacking icon and started a loading screen as it downloaded the information. Every few seconds, Lance would glance at Keith to make sure he was alright. He noticed him touching his ears which were transformed into more Galran ears. Lance didn’t know what he was thinking, but couldn’t have been good.

 

The download completed. He shut down his holographic screen and rushed to the red paladin’s side.

 

“Can you get up again?” Lance asked.

 

“I should be fine,” Keith answered, his voice raspy. Lance helped him up and slung his arm over his shoulder.

 

“Then let’s get out of here,” Lance said as he had Keith lean against the wall and pushed the barricade from the door.

 

He went back to Keith and they exited the room, Lance’s bayard up and ready to shoot any Galra waiting outside. Once they had, the ship shook violently.

 

“ _ Holy _ —! What was that?!” Lance screamed before he ran as quickly as he could with Keith.

 

“It’s must be Red,” Keith said, clutching at the side he had landed on during their fight with the druids. 

 

“Come on,” Lance said, the two of them making an effort to go faster.

 

They hurried down the halls, Lance having to shoot at any obstacle they faced and braced every time the ship shook. The escape seemed longer than their entrance; however, when they finally reached the pod— at least where they had last left the pod— the pod itself was gone.

 

“Dammit!” Lance hissed. “Pidge, they took the pod!”

 

“Well, I don’t think you’ll need it,” Hunk answered instead. “Both your lion and Keith’s lion are out here attacking the ship.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last chapter I have right now, I'm working on the 8th chapter and it's gonna be pretty lowkey gay.
> 
> I have so much planned for this fic so it might run long, but on the bright side you've got a lot to look forward to!

Chapter 7

 

“Wait, my lion, too?” Lance asked confused.

 

“Yeah,” Hunk replied. “But Blue looks more or less like she’s looking for your escape route.”

 

“She’s hovering over in one place,” Pidge muttered. “Hunk, cover me.” She quickly tapped away at her dashboard while Hunk did as instructed. She opened the map and looked for whatever the blue lion was seeing. “There!” She shouted. “There’s a chute just down that hallway you’re in!”

 

“That’s my girl!” Lance explained as they went faster.

 

“Just get out of there!” Pidge snapped before getting back into the fight with the fleet.

 

“Roger that!” Lance replied with a grin.

 

Lance and Keith hurried themselves down the hall to where Pidge had described, the blue paladin slightly worried the red paladin was pushing himself a little too far. Pidge had been right, there was a chute just down the hall where Lance could hear his lion calling for him.

 

“I’m comin’ Blue!” Lance shouted.

 

He first helped Keith down the chute, shooting at the incoming Galra before he followed. Once the two had made it out, Red quickly retrieved Keith and Blue patiently waited for Lance, purring at him.

 

“Alright, girl,” Lance said quietly to his lion. “Let’s get outta here!”

 

Once Lance finally boarded his lion, the four paladins retreated to the castle and they warped to an unknown location to Lotor.

 

* * *

 

 

After they had warped, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge rushed to the red lion’s hangar to check on Keith. They were worried that they would lose another paladin in a less mysterious way.

 

“Lance, what happened?” Hunk asked as they ran down the hallway. “What did the druids do?”

  
  
“I don’t know, Hunk!” Lance screamed, worried and afraid. “He just charged at them and then— and then one of em—!”

 

“Okay, breathe you two,” Pidge explained once they got to the hangar. “It can’t be anything the healing pods can’t fix.”

 

“Right, right,” Lance said, exhaling.

 

They saw Keith struggling to get out of his lion, but still battered and tired. He leaned against Red’s muzzle, unable to move any farther without help. It was then that Hunk and Pidge saw what the druid had done.

 

“Keith, you’re— you’re _purple_!” Hunk shouted, getting faster.

 

“Why does Keith look more like a Galra?!” Pidge shouted, outraged and looking at Lance.

 

“I don’t know!” Lance protested as they both caught up with Hunk and got to Keith.

 

“This doesn’t look good; Keith you said you were okay!” Hunk scolded with a worried expression. “You don’t look okay! You look—!”

 

“More Galra,” Keith finished with a grim expression. He grunted, clutching at his side.

 

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” Hunk argued, quietly. “I was gonna say you look like you’re in a lot of pain.”

 

“Keith,” Pidge began with a worried expression. “Are you still on the whole Galra thing?”

 

Keith didn’t answer.

 

“Come on,” Lance said, going to Keith’s other side. “Let’s get him to the healing pods.”

 

Both Lance and Hunk helped Keith to the medical bay. Allura and Coran were waiting, just as worried as the other paladins. While it was surprising when the two Alteans saw Keith purple and more Galra-looking, Allura pushed her feelings down as far as she could because she remembered that Keith was still _Keith_.

 

Once they had successfully got him into the pod, all they had left to do was wait.

 

“Lance, explain what happened,” Allura said as they sat around the pod.

 

“I—I don’t know, the druids were just there and then Keith rushed in and then I tried to get the druid before it could get to Keith and,” Lance took a breath. “And then they used their magic on him.”

 

“Their magic must have reacted with his Galra side and made him look more like the part,” Coran theorized. He turned his head towards the pod with a worried expression at Keith. “Let’s hope the pod can reverse whatever they did.”

 

“What do you mean ‘hopefully’?” Pidge questioned, slightly annoyed. “It reversed the wound Shiro had from them, didn’t it?”

  
  
“Well, Shiro was fully human,” Coran explained, turning to Pidge. “Keith is half Galra and that might have a different effect.”

 

“So you’re saying this might be permanent?!” Lance and Hunk screamed, outraged.

 

“No— _no_ , this can’t be permanent!” Lance screamed. “There has to be a way to turn him back.”

 

“Well, it’s a long shot, but there could be a way; however, I’m not sure what,” Coran mentioned, his finger to his chin.

 

“Then we should figure it out,” Allura explained with a determined expression. “If the pod fixes it, then that’s great, but if not we’re going to figure out how to change him back.”

 

“I think we should, too,” Pidge agreed. “Keith didn’t seem too happy about it and it seemed like he’s still on the whole Galra thing.”

 

“But what if we can’t?” Hunk questioned. “What if there’s no fixing this?”

 

Lance looked at Keith in the pod. There was no _way_ they could let Keith stay like that.

 

“Then we support him,” Allura said, standing up. “If we can’t change him back, then we need to let him know we’re there for him.” She looked to Keith. “We need to let him know he’s still Keith to us.”

 

“Yeah,” Lance agreed, standing up as well. “I agree with the princess.”

 

Pidge sighed. “Then it’s settled,” She said, standing up, too. Hunk followed her lead as well as Coran. “We do everything we can to reverse what the druids did; if we can’t, we need to be there for him, _no questions_ , got it Lance?”

 

“What?” Lance protested.

 

“This means you can’t act like a jerk,” Pidge explained in a serious tone. “Not like you did at the funeral and not like you did after Shiro disappeared.”

 

“Why do you always single me out?” Lance snapped.

 

“Alright, that’s enough you two,” Coran said, getting between them.

 

“Coran and Pidge should go and analyze the information Keith and Lance received and I’ll contact the Blade of Marmora to notify them that Lotor has taken over,” Allura ordered. She ushered Pidge and Coran out of the healing bay.

 

“I think I’m gonna grab some grub,” Hunk said out loud, rubbing his belly. “Lance, you coming?”

 

“Nah,” Lance said, looking at Keith’s pod. “I think I’ll just stick around— keep an eye on Keith, ya know?”

 

“Alright, if you say so,” Hunk said before leaving as well.

 

 

* * *

 

Lance had watched Keith resting in the pod for probably five vargas. It was boring, but he was determined to stay with Keith to make sure he was fully recovered. During that time, Lance noticed that the purple in his skin had mainly went away except for around his hands and near his ears and eyes. His Galra ears remained, which still worried Lance.

 

After a while longer, Keith finally was ready to get out of the pod. Lance stood up as he slowly got himself out, trying to keep himself steady.

 

“Hey, buddy,” Lance greeted with a relieved expression.

 

“Lance?” Keith questioned. He didn’t expect him of all people to be waiting for him. “Where’s everyone else?” He asked, his voice cracking.

 

“Pidge and Coran are looking over the stuff we got from Lotor’s ship, Allura’s notifying the Blade of Marmora that Lotor’s taken over, and Hunk went and got a bite to eat,” Lance explained. “How are you feeling?”

 

“I’m fine—!” Keith caught the purple still on his hands along with the sharp claws. He felt at his ears which were still Galra-looking. His expression turned dark. “—I still look Galra.”

 

“No—!” Lance held up his index finger so that Keith didn’t interrupt him. “—You still look _more_ Galra than you were, but less than when the druid hit you.”

 

“What do you mean?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“When the druid attacked you with their magic, you’re entire body was purple and the whites of your eyes were way more yellow than they are right now,” Lance explained. “Now the only parts of your body that’s purple is around your eyes and ears as well as your hands.”

 

Keith looked down at his purple clawed hands with a downcast expression. “I still look more like the enemy,” He muttered quietly.

 

Lance grabbed Keith’s shoulders, the red paladin abruptly looking up at him with surprise. “No, you look like _Keith_ ,” He said sternly. “No matter what you _have_ , you’re still _Keith_ , red paladin of Voltron.”

 

Keith didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what he’d even say, so he looked away from Lance. The blue paladin let go of him with a concerned expression. He sighed.

 

“Okay, so I know I seem to hate you, but it’s more like a rivalry,” Lance explained awkwardly. “We’re a good team, Keith. We had a bonding moment, remember?”

 

“So you decide to remember now?” Keith questioned with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Okay, so I might of denied it the first time because I didn’t want to admit to it,” Lance admitted. “But I realize now that we _are_ a good team. A _really_ good one. And besides, we just had another bonding moment on Lotor’s ship.” Lance crossed his arms with a smug look.

 

Keith gave him a half smile. “I guess you’re right.”

 

“You guess?” Lance questioned with a grin. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying we _didn’t_ have a bonding moment on Lotor’s ship?”

 

“I don’t know,” Keith started with a shit eating grin. He crossed his arms. “I was kind of out of it and hurt at the time. I could have imagined it all.”

 

Lance blinked. “Wait, did you… did you just make a joke?”

 

Keith raised an eyebrow. “What?”

 

“You just made a joke!” Lance said with a smile.

 

Keith gave an annoyed expression.

 

“No, no! This is awesome!” Lance exclaimed with an excited expression.

 

“I’m gonna go change,” Keith said, turning away from Lance and heading to his room.

 

“Wait, Keith!” Lance called. “Buddy?” Keith refused to turn around. “Come on, we had a bonding moment!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! AngelWritesThings97 here. Next chapter, whoo! Gay things happen without being too gay.
> 
> and if you'd like to see artwork of the fic, I plan to do a lot of it on my tumblr, klangstyangst (main blog is not-an-angelic-empress and my art will also be posted there).
> 
> anyway, on with the chapter!

Chapter 8

 

Keith couldn’t handle his remaining Galra-looking parts. A couple quintants passed since the incident with the druid. He kept to himself in his room curled up in his blankets, worrying the rest of the team.

 

They hadn’t gotten any attacks from Lotor or annoyingly surprise calls from him. They wondered when anything would happen, if at all. Zarkon would have been the only one to track them down by the black lion, so Lotor couldn’t track them down, but that didn’t mean anything. 

 

Pidge and Coran had figured out a couple things from the two quintants they had so far. They found out that Lotor had a thing for seducing other aliens and when he wanted something he got it, either through his father or by his own terms.

 

“Look at this, Coran,” Pidge said, pointing out a group of Galran letters. “This looks like some kind of journal.”

 

“Well, I’ll be,” Coran said, amazed. “Let’s take a look, then; shall we?”

 

“We shall,” Pidge replied.

 

As the two continued to decode the newfound journal, Hunk and Lance hung out in the kitchen while the yellow paladin cooked up their dinner.

 

“So, do you know what’s going on with Keith?” Hunk asked as he put in the pan of whatever he had whipped up. “Is he still on the Galra thing? He shouldn’t be if he is.”

 

“He probably still is,” Lance said with a sigh, leaning against the counter. “I told him no matter what he looked like, he’d always still be Keith, but I don’t think it got through to him.”

 

“Do you think we should do something for him?” Hunk asked, closing the oven. “Like make a sweater or something?”

 

“Maybe we should throw like a team bonding party or something,” Lance suggested. “Like we could do some earth games like truth or dare or even hide and seek!”

 

“Hey, that’s a good idea, Lance!” Hunk said. “We could have like a big ol’ slumber party in the lounge!”

 

“Yeah!” Lance agreed.

 

“Oh, but we should plan this out,” Hunk suggested. “Like make sure we know  _ everything _ we want to do so we can make sure that Keith knows we’re all a big Voltron family.”

 

“Good thinking Hunk,” Lance replied.

 

* * *

 

 

Allura sighed, standing in front of Kolivan’s image on the screen. He had called for the third time over two quintants about the Lotor situation.

 

“Princess, we need to know what Lotor is planning,” Kolivan said. “We can’t risk another attack by him with only four paladins.”

 

“I’ll have you know that those four paladins are capable of many things, Kolivan,” Allura snapped, defending her paladins. “They single handedly wiped out Lotor’s fleet and infiltrated his ship, grabbed information, and got out alive!”

 

“You and I both know that Lotor is capable of many things, princess Allura,” Kolivan argued. “He would not have let your paladins go so easily.”

 

“This may be true, but—!”

 

“Tell me, princess,” Kolivan interrupted. “Who was he taking interest in?”

 

Allura paused. Lotor had taken interest in Keith, her red paladin. One of his druids had attacked him, but didn’t kill him and he was turned purple— almost more Galran than he was before.

 

It was then that Allura realized that Lotor’s agenda was Keith.

 

“This is absurd,” Allura protested. “Why would he have an interest in Keith?”

 

“I have a feeling it’s because of his Galra heritage, princess,” Kolivan explained. “How is he, by the way?”

 

“He’s…” The princess hesitated, her gaze trailing away from the leader of the Blade of Marmora. “He’s holding up. After the attack from the druid, his ailment has only subsided slightly,” She explained. “He’s not taking it well.”

 

“But he’s not like other Galra,” Kolivan argued. “He’s only half and he’s a paladin of Voltron.”

 

“However, it seems that our red paladin thinks that if he takes on the leader role, he’ll end up like Zarkon.” She looked up at Kolivan with worried eyes. “He thinks he’ll be corrupt and turn evil.”

 

“Give him time,” Kolivan explained. “Let him process everything he needs to.”

 

“Thank you for your concern, Kolivan,” Allura replied.

 

“There is no need,” Kolivan said. “Keith is not only a paladin, but also a member of our own family. Stay well, princess.”

 

“Same to you, Kolivan,” Allura said as they ended the call.

 

* * *

 

 

Once dinner came around, everyone but Keith had gathered in the dining hall. There just wasn’t an end to how much they could worry about the red paladin. No one touched their food, too worried about him.

 

“Should someone go find him, or…?” Hunk asked awkwardly.

 

“I’ll go,” Lance said getting up.

 

“I don’t think you should go, Lance,” Pidge argued, getting up. “Maybe I should—!”

 

“ _ I’m going _ ,” Lance hissed before leaving the room in a huff.

 

He headed toward Keith’s room. He knocked, but got no answer.

 

“Keith? It’s me, Lance,” He announced with another knock.

 

“I’m not hungry,” Keith replied, his voice muffled through the closed door.

 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked.

 

It took a moment, but Keith answered. “I’m fine.” That was a blatant lie and Lance was not going to fall for it.

 

“Don’t give me that answer, Keith; we both know it’s a lie,” Lance retorted with a deadpan stare. “Come on, open up!”

 

“Go away,” Keith shouted. His voice wasn’t angry, it was tired.

 

Lance sighed. “I’m worried about you— all of us are,” He mentioned. “So could you give me a straight answer?”

 

Instead of speaking again, Lance heard Keith’s footsteps from the other side of the door and it opened. Keith looked tired as if he hadn’t slept for the past two days.

 

“Have you not been sleeping?” Lance asked, raising a brow.

 

Keith didn’t speak. He just seemed too drained to do so.

 

“Keith, what’s going on?” Lance asked.

 

“Oh, I don’t know, Lance,” Keith said sarcastically with a monotone and rough voice. “I was thrown into leadership, Shiro’s gone  _ again _ , and I just gained several more Galra parts; what do you  _ think _ is going on?”

 

Lance gave a scowl. “None of us  _ care _ about the stupid Galra parts, Keith,” Lance argued. “No matter what,  _ you. Are. Keith Kogane. _ The red paladin of Voltron— not a Galra,  _ a paladin of Voltron _ .” He stepped forward, entering Keith’s room. In turn, the red paladin stepped backwards, allowing the blue paladin to enter. “What I’d like to know, is why the  _ fuck _ you think you can’t be the leader of Voltron.”

 

Keith looked Lance dead in the eye. “I can’t be leader,” He answered through closed teeth.

 

“And why the fuck not?” Lance snapped. “Because you think you look like the ‘enemy’?”

 

“Because I might end up like Zarkon,” Keith replied flatly. He turned his body away from Lance, hanging his head.

 

Lance’s intense scowl turned soft. He hadn’t realized that despite how amazing Keith was, how skilled, how  _ seemingly perfect _ — just like Lance, he had his insecurities; they just happened to be a lot different from his. He realized that he’d made a mistake. Keith didn’t want to be leader. Lance had thought he did, but he didn’t. Despite everything that Shiro seemed to have believed in, Keith didn’t think he was good enough— it wasn’t a matter of him thinking he looked like the enemy as leader, it was a matter of Keith thinking that he’d become the enemy if he  _ was _ leader.

 

Lance had judged him too harshly. 

 

In a moment of instinct, Lance turned Keith around and held him close. He didn’t have any words to tell him because he didn’t know what the red paladin was feeling. What he did know was that insecurities are stupid and no one should deal with them alone.

 

Keith, on the other hand, was freaking out. Lance, the one he thought didn’t like him, was giving him a  _ hug _ . He wasn’t used to others hugging him out of the blue. First it was Allura, now it was Lance. It was foreign. He didn’t expect it. Keith felt tears rolling down his face from the overwhelming stress and frustration he’d given himself. He hadn’t realized how powerful a hug could be. Keith’s arms hovered a while, attempting to hug him back, but he was afraid of the outcome. 

 

The hug lasted for about four to five ticks before Lance let go, his face pink in embarrassment. He’d held it too long, much longer than the normal “bro hug”. He looked to the side, coughed, and said, “Sorry, I didn’t…”

 

“No!” Keith interrupted. “Don’t be sorry, I— I needed that hug. Thank you.” He wiped the tears from his face.

 

“Are you okay now?” Lance asked, looking up with his hands in his jean pockets.

 

Keith nodded.

 

“The other’s are waiting for you at the dinner table,” Lance explained, rocking on his feet. “So we should probably head over there.”

 

“Yeah, ok,” Keith agreed with another nod.

 

“Come on,” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s arm and leading him out of his room. “Hunk made a special dinner and you’re making it cold!”

 

* * *

 

 

Once Keith and Lance finally returned to the dining room, the paladins, Allura, and Coran started eating. Pidge explained all they had found that day, mentioning the journal and explaining they were in the middle of decoding it. So far they had read something about Keith and they hadn’t explored any further than that.

 

After Pidge finished, Allura spoke. “Kolivan called again. He’s worried about you, Keith.”

 

“Is he?” Keith questioned, looking up from his food. 

 

“I’m guessing he called because of Lotor, right?” Pidge clarified. “He needs to be patient, we’re doing the best we can.”

 

“Agreed,” Coran said with a nod. “It takes time to decode all this Galra information— Lotor really didn’t want anyone to read that journal.”

 

“To be honest, it was more like a diary,” Pidge muttered before sticking another fork full of her food into her mouth. She swallowed. “The majority of what we read in it were about affairs he’s taken part in— a lot of documentation of parties and one night stands.”

 

“Really?” Hunk asked. 

 

“What, is he still in middle school?” Lance questioned.

 

“Middle school?” Allura asked.

 

“Let’s not get into that,” Pidge mentioned. 

 

“Yeah, let’s save it for Lance and my surprise!” Hunk exclaimed with a grin.

 

“Wait, what?” Keith questioned, now fully aware of the conversation.

  
“Get ready, buddy!” Lance exclaimed, wrapping his arm around his neck. “We’re about to have a team bonding night!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! New update just as I promised on my tumblr!
> 
> I made this chapter longer than the other eight chapters. It's quite the chapter to be honest.
> 
> I'll also mention now that I'd like to give a big thanks to a friend of mine who's been helping me out with this fanfic by giving grammar edits and reading the chapters over before I post them. This fic probably wouldn't be up if it weren't for him.
> 
> Any who, on to the chapter!

Keith had not expected the team bonding night. He had never experienced any type of hanging out with friends, unless you could count the times he’d been with Shiro. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it was definitely different.

 

The bonding night had started with everyone finding anything in the castle to build “the best team fort in the history of forts” in the middle of the lounge room. Coran and Hunk transported all the dining chairs from the dining room in; Pidge gathered all the pillows, extra blankets, and anything else that she could lift; and Allura, Keith, and Lance went to a storage room to grab anything that Lance saw fit to hold the fort up.

 

“Could these work?” Allura asked as she held up several staffs that were on a rack, holding them

towards Lance.

 

Lance rubbed his chin with a finger. “I’m sure we could make it work— Keith! Find anything?” He asked, turning to the red paladin sticking his nose in a box.

 

“Not really,” Keith replied. He stood straight, away from the box. “Just some tight packed cubes that I can’t figure out.”

 

“How big are they? Maybe we could use them as, like, weights for the blankets,” Lance suggested.

 

“Come see for yourself,” Keith said, taking a step away from the box.

 

Lance walked over and looked at the cubes. He picked one up and examined it.

 

The cubes were a light grey color with light sources around it and the size of a soft ball. It had grooves in its sides much like the rest of the castle. What Lance was more focused on, however, was the weight. It was fairly heavy, like it wasn’t hollow. He tossed it a couple times to confirm the weight.

 

“Yeah, we could probably use these as weights or something,” Lance repeated himself.

 

“Oh!” Allura said, noticing the item in Lance’s hand. “Those are old drones!”

 

“Old drones?” Keith asked curiously.

 

“Yes!” Allura said with a smile. “They were old prototypes. Coran’s grandfather designed them to keep the castle up and running; however, Zarkon stole the blueprints and created his own like the one Pidge repurposed.”

 

“Cool,” Lance replied, grabbing a couple more. “Keith, grab like five; We’ll use eight for weights and give one to Pidge to play with.”

 

Keith obliged and grabbed the said amount. “So, anything else?”

 

Lance shrugged. “If there’s nothing else in this room we’re basically done here,” He answered, beginning to walk out of the storage room. “Besides, I’m sure Hunk, Coran, and Pidge found enough stuff for the fort.”

 

Keith and Allura followed him down the hallway with the drone prototypes and extra staffs. When they got back, Hunk and Coran were arranging the chairs from the dining room around the seating in the lounge at the yellow paladin’s instruction. Off to the side, there was a pile of pillows and blankets that shifted ever so slightly. Lance raised an eyebrow.

 

“Uh, Pidge?” He called out. “Is that you under that pile of blankets?”

 

As if on cue, the green paladin shoved her way through a hole in the pile. Her glasses were askew and she seemed to be frustrated.

 

“ _ Hunk _ !” She shouted, glaring at the yellow paladin. “You said it was in here!”

 

“Well, that’s where I last put it,” Hunk argued. “Are you sure it wasn’t between those two pillows?”

 

“ _ Which ones _ ?!” Pidge shouted, more frustrated than she probably needed to be. “There are, like, thirty different pillows!”

 

“The two to your left,” Hunk specified, pointing to the two pillows under her left hand.

 

She looked down at the pillows under her hand. “Oh,” She said, realizing how silly she was being. Her face turned a slight pink from embarrassment. “Sorry,” she apologized as she lifted the top pillow and grabbed the string from between them.

 

“No, it’s okay,” Hunk assured. “I probably should have explained it better.”

 

“Okay, guys and gals!” Lance exclaimed, holding up the drones. “Let’s get this fort built!”

 

* * *

 

 

It had maybe taken the paladins a half an hour to put together the fort. Pidge had tipped over the chair she had stood on top of about a dozen times, making the fort collapse just as many leading to Lance’s disappointment. They eventually arranged the fort in a way that was barely stable but good enough for their team bonding night.

 

“Perfect!” Lance exclaimed, hands on his hips once Hunk threw on the last blanket. “All done!”

 

“What about this extra block thing?” Pidge asked, holding it in her hands. “We didn’t use it.”

 

“That, my friend, is for you,” Lance said with an eager grin.

 

“Me?” Pidge questioned, looking at it.

 

“It’s a drone prototype,” Allura replied. “Lance thought maybe you’d like to tinker with it.”

 

Pidge’s eyes sparkled, looking at the drone in her hands. “Oh, my God— this is awesome!” She screamed, hugging the drone.

 

“Now what?” Keith asked awkwardly.

 

“Maybe tell us what this ‘middle school’ is?” Allura suggested with a cheeky grin.

 

Pidge groaned. 

 

“Everyone inside the fort!” Lance exclaimed, a finger in the air. “It’s storytime!”

 

Once inside the fort, the paladins, Coran, and Allura all sat in a circle on the floor where there were several blankets and pillows. Pidge sat cross legged with her new drone in her lap; Lance, Hunk, and Keith sat next to each other; and Allura sat in a proper way for a princess in a dress. Coran sat next to her the same way as the paladins and the storytelling began.

 

“So before we tell you about middle school, you need to understand our school system,” Hunk began. “In other countries it’s different, but in ours there are twelve levels of school and they’re all separated into three parts— elementary school, middle school, and high school.”

 

“And each level is called a grade,” Pidge added, bored. Her chin rested in her palm and a pout on her face. “So like ‘first grade’, ‘second grade’, ‘third grade’ and so on and so forth. But once you get to eighth grade they start calling the last four as Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.”

 

“Wow,” Coran said. “Such an odd school system!”

 

“You’re telling us,” Lance interjected. “Middle school is the three grades in the middle of elementary school and high school.”

 

“We should also explain that Freshmen through Senior year is classified as high school,” Hunk explained. “So first through fifth grade is elementary, and sixth through eighth is middle school.”

 

“Very interesting,” Allura said, with a thoughtful expression. “That’s quite the uneven split between these ‘grades’. Wouldn’t it have been better to split it to where the sections were an even four?”

 

“Probably,” Pidge said. “The grading system though—  _ ugh _ , you get a little more than half of the questions right and you failed the assignment.”

 

“ _ You _ didn’t have to worry about that, Pidge,” Lance said, poking her. “Smarty pants.”

 

“It’s not my fault you never paid attention in class at the Garrison,” Pidge replied, leaning back against the couch. 

 

“I tried to help you, Lance,” Hunk added.

 

“Yeah, and I’m grateful for that, but that stuff is hard,” Lance whined. 

 

Pidge turn to Keith. “I bet you didn’t have much problem,” She mentioned.

 

“Where do you get that idea?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Uh, hello?” Pidge questioned, slightly confused. “Best in your class?”

 

“Best  _ pilot _ ,” Keith corrected.

 

“Wait a minute,” Hunk began. “Is that why you didn’t know what a fraunhofer line was?”

 

“I was a pilot, not an engineer,” Keith retorted.

 

“You  _ are _ a pilot,” Allura corrected. Her face clearly stated that she wasn’t having any of Keith’s false shortcomings of himself.

 

“I was kicked out of the Garrison, princess,” Keith replied. 

 

“ _ You pilot the red lion _ ,” Allura protested. “You are a pilot.”

 

“No more negativity!” Lance protested. “This is a team bonding night, not an ‘at everyone’s throat’ night!”

 

“So who were your friends in the Garrison, Keith?” Hunk asked to change the subject. 

 

“I didn’t really have ‘friends’,” Keith replied. He rubbed his neck. 

 

“You had to have been at least buddies with your crew,” Lance said. “Who was your team before?”

 

“I don’t remember their names,” Keith replied, sort of embarrassed. “I only ever talked to them during simulations and even then we didn’t get along well.” He sighed.

 

“Oh, I wonder why,” Pidge muttered sarcastically.

 

“Pidge!” Lance and Hunk scolded.

 

“No, she’s right,” Keith replied. “I’ve never been a good teammate.”

 

“You’ve been getting better, though!” Hunk assured. “Like when we went into the weblum? You and I did a pretty good job getting the scaultrite. You even gave me a pat on the back!”

 

“Whoa, really?” Lance asked, looking at Hunk with a surprised expression.  “You didn’t tell me that!”

 

Hunk shrugged. “It really didn’t come up,” Hunk replied simply.

 

“See, Keith?” Allura said. “You’re a good person.”

 

“It doesn’t even matter that you and your old teammates didn’t work well together,” Lance said. “ _ We’re _ your team now. We’re a  _ family _ .”

 

“Oh, nice, Lance!” Hunk said. “Good wording!”

 

“So, anyone want to hear about my two brothers and two sisters?” Lance suggested, eager to gush about his family.

 

It didn’t matter. Lance gushed about his family anyway despite any protests from Pidge. Allura was happy to listen to everything the blue paladin had to talk about, glad that he wasn’t just a flirtatious jokester.

 

Lance reminisced on his younger siblings and the time that he would go to Veradero beach with them and build epic sand castles that would instantly be knocked down by their older brother. He explained that he used to challenge him to a swimming contest in the ocean and if Lance won, his older brother would have to rebuild the entire castle while him and his little siblings drank grandma’s famous lemonade she’d bring in a picnic basket.

 

The majority of his stories were about fun things he’d do with his family from camping trips to helping out at his dad’s shop. After a while, it shifted from Lance to Hunk who talked about his favorite places to go in Samoa, then it was Pidge’s turn, and then Allura and Coran. The only one who didn’t have a story to tell was Keith.

 

“Come on, Keith!” Lance protested. “You gotta have  _ something _ .”

 

“There’s nothing really interesting,” Keith argued. “Just maybe my dad left when I was younger.”

 

“So you’ve never had, like, a  _ real _ family?” Hunk questioned.

 

“If by real family you mean no parents, I guess you could say that,” Keith said quietly.

 

“We’re your family now,” Allura said, repeating Lance.

 

Lance wrapped his arm around Keith’s neck with a grin. “That’s absolutely right!” He agreed. 

 

“ _ Group hug _ !” Hunk exclaimed before bringing everyone into a hug.

 

“Okay, let’s play truth or dare!” Lance suggested before Hunk let go.

 

They played plenty of earth games— at least as many as they could with what they had. It was mostly just truth or dare and a hide and seek game that was limited to only a few rooms since the castle was so huge. Lance dominated in that game, always finding Keith first. Of course, the red paladin wasn’t much for hide and seek, so it was rather easy anyway. Later in the game however, he started getting into it and this sparked a friendly competition as to how many times they could find each other. 

 

Pidge was the hardest to find, being that she was small and fit in the smallest of places that Lance didn’t even think to look. Hunk caught on, however, and made it his mission to find the little gremlin first. Allura, on the other hand, took a while to get the hang of the game itself. Eventually she did, but didn’t understand what the appeal of the game was.

 

Coran stood and watched as he thought it best to have at least  _ one _ responsible adult supervising the whole thing. It was fun to watch them run around the castle occasionally stopping to ask him where they might have hid.

 

“Ha!” Keith shouted as he quickly opened a small utilities closet door with a smile on his face. Lance sat in the corner with his hand covering his mouth. “Found you!”

 

“Aw, man!” Lance whined with a pout. “I thought I fooled you this time!”

 

Despite his pouting facade, Lance was happy that Keith was enjoying himself. It almost seemed as if the red paladin had finally forgotten about his new Galra features, at least for a little while.

 

“So, who’s left?” Lance asked as he got out of the closet.

 

“Pidge,” Keith answered.

 

“Of course,” Lance said with a smirk, rolling his eyes. “Any ideas?”

 

“I have a feeling she’s in the kitchen again, but I’m not sure,” Keith said.

 

“Well, let’s go check!” Lance exclaimed, breaking into a sprint to the kitchen.

 

Keith followed close behind; however, once they got there, Hunk had already ripped the kitchen apart.

 

“So she’s not in here, then?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“No!” Hunk screamed, worried out of his mind. He pulled his head out from under the sink with an expression to match. “I’ve looked everywhere!”

 

“Even in the vent?” Lance asked, surprised.

 

“I looked, she wasn’t there!”

 

“Did you check—?”

 

At that moment, Pidge opened the door with a concerned expression. The three other paladins looked towards her.

 

“Oh, my God— Pidge, you scared me half to death!” Hunk whined with a hefty sigh of relief.

 

“Guys, pause the game a minute,” She said in a serious tone. 

 

“What’s going on?” Keith asked.

  
“It’s Lotor,” Pidge explained. “He’s calling.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has some mentioning of torture and forced relationships. They're just mentions of it but it still needs to be said. I'll edit the tags for this reason too.

Chapter 10

 

Lance groaned. “What does the fashion mess want now?” Lance whined, annoyed. There was no  _ way _ he was letting the purple prince of antique attire ruin his and Hunk’s team bonding night plans. “Why can’t he monologue at his Galra lackeys instead?” He growled as the four paladins ran towards the deck.

 

“Calm down, Lance,” Pidge said, giving a deadpan stare. “You don’t need to be so upset about it.”

 

“He’s interrupting team bonding night!” Lance huffed as they entered the deck.

 

Once they entered the room, Coran pulled up the call, the smug, grinning face of prince Lotor appearing on screen. He seemed very,  _ very _ happy.

 

This only made Lance more upset.

 

“What do you want with Keith?” Allura snapped with crossed arms and a dirty glare.

 

“Wait a minute, you’re targeting  _ Keith _ ?” Lance snapped, hands gripped into fists.

 

“Oh, you haven’t realized  _ why _ I let you go so easily?” Lotor retorted, amused. “You didn’t underestimate me, did you, blue paladin?”

 

Lotor had  _ meant _ to turn Keith more Galra. He had  _ meant _ to let them go. Lance realized there was much more to the Galran prince’s plan than he had originally thought.

 

“On the contrary,” Allura retorted. “He already figured out you had meant to allow them on your petty ship,  _ Lotor _ .”

 

“Oh, but you know now there was more to my plan than meets your fledgling eyes, don’t you, blue paladin?” Lotor mused, chin resting on his intertwined clawed hands.

 

“ _ Lance _ ,” the blue paladin snapped. “My name is  _ Lance _ .”

 

“Excuse me, but are you  _ ignoring _ me?” Allura snarled. “I’d say that’s not very princely, but you’re not much of a prince, are you?”

 

“How dare you question my own title!” Lotor growled, sitting up straight. “I am Prince Lotor, son of Zarkon and that makes me  _ prince of the Galran Empire _ .”

 

“Still a prince despite Zarkon being out of commission?” Allura retorted. “What a pity.”

 

“You’re the one to talk!” Lotor snarled. “Still a princess yet you have no kingdom to rule!”

 

“Because  _ you and your savage father destroyed my planet _ !” Allura roared. “Your Empire is filled with nothing but disgusting, vile creatures with no empathy!” She was outraged, and the paladins knew it.

 

While Keith knew that she hadn’t meant all Galra themselves, he still felt a sting shot towards him. 

 

Lotor’s expression changed back to his amused grin. “So does this include your red paladin?” Lotor asked. “If I remember correctly,  _ he’s _ Galra.”

 

Allura was taken aback. She covered her mouth and her head swung around to look at Keith. His ears were bent back like a cat and his expression was upsetting.

 

“Keith, I didn’t mean  _ all _ Galra,” Allura assured with a concerned expression. “I just meant in the Galran Empire.”

 

“Oh, but it didn’t sound like it, now did it?” Lotor retorted, pleased with the outcome.

 

“ _ Don’t twist my words, Lotor _ ,” Allura snapped, her head swinging back towards the Galra prince with a glare. “No matter what Keith is, he is  _ nothing _ like  _ your Empire’s people _ .”

 

“Princess, he’s only trying to get a rile out of you!” Coran scolded with a worried expression.

 

“I don’t know what you want with him, but  _ you’re not going to get what you want _ ,” Lance snapped, stomping closer to the screen.

 

“Yeah!” Hunk agreed, following the blue paladin.

 

Pidge rolled her eyes as she watched them get into the holographic image of Lotor’s face. “You guys are ridiculous,” She muttered, walking over to her seat.

 

“What’s this?” Lotor questioned, looking at the two paladins in front of him. “The legs of Voltron are standing up to  _ me _ ?”

 

“Well, yeah,” Hunk replied. “That’s what legs do.”

 

Prince Lotor narrowed his eyes at the yellow paladin. “Well played, yellow paladin,” he muttered.

 

“I try,” Hunk said with a shrug.

 

“Enough with the puns;  _ you _ need to back off Keith or else you’re gonna have to go through us!” Lance shouted, standing his ground.

 

“Yeah, we’re a team!” Hunk added, pushing his chest up. “And Keith’s our buddy!”

 

“Oh,  _ very _ intimidating,” Lotor mocked, sarcastically.

 

“Don’t underestimate my paladins,  _ filth _ ,” Allura snapped.

 

“From what I’ve seen, I estimate them quite well, princess of Altea,” Lotor retorted, a hand on his chest.

 

Pidge opened up her dashboard, pulling up the files on Lotor’s journal. She specifically opened up a certain one she knew would get a reaction from their enemy.

 

“So, Lotor,” She began, scrolling through the file. “I don’t suppose you want to explain this—” She cleared her throat. “—‘Quintant four; this new Altean prisoner has captured my interest. Despite his never ending struggle to escape, he’s quite the attractive being. Every time I come across him he’s got a new scar forming somewhere on his body. His ravishing body and demeanor intrigues me so much that I—’”

 

“ _ That is enough from the gremlin child _ !” Lotor screamed, his voice cracking. “How did you decipher my journal!”

 

Pidge gave a shit eating grin to Lotor. “I wouldn’t underestimate this  _ gremlin child _ ,” she retorted, adjusting her glasses. “You haven’t seen anything yet,  _ Lotor, Prince of a petty empire _ .”

 

“How dare you insult my empire, you gremlin child!” Lotor snapped. “And how  _ dare _ you snoop into my private affairs!”

 

“You’re the one who let those two in,” Pidge said, satisfied. “You’d think you’d put more security on something like that.”

 

“Not so cool now, are you, Lotor?” Lance mocked with a grin. He crossed his arms as his grin faded. “Now leave Keith  _ alone _ .”

 

Lotor glared at the blue paladin. “You don’t understand,  _ puny paladin _ ,” He snarled. “Lotor, prince of the Galran Empire,  _ always _ gets what he wants.”

 

“Talking in the third person?” Hunk questioned. “Lame.”

 

“News flash,  _ douchebag _ ,” Lance snapped. “You’re talking to Voltron here!”

 

“Lance…” Hunk muttered, with a shake of his head.

 

“You’re not getting  _ anything _ ,” Lance continued, ignoring Hunk. “So you can just  _ suck it _ , ‘cause you’re not laying a claw on  _ our _ red paladin!”

 

“That’s absolutely right!” Allura agreed. “Keith isn’t going  _ anywhere _ .”

 

“Mark my words,  _ paladins _ ,” Lotor snarled. “I  _ will _ take Keith as my own.” With that he ended the call.

 

Coran sighed, glad the call was over and the probability of something reckless happening dropped considerably.

 

“That could have gone better,” Coran mumbled, leaning forward on his control pad.

 

“What is Lotor’s deal?” Lance asked, still upset. “What does he want with Keith?”

 

“I don’t know, but Kolivan brought it up in our conversation today,” Allura explained. “It’s quite surprising, actually.”

 

Lance frowned. He’d succeeded in getting Keith to forget about having Galra ears and claws, and Lotor just  _ had _ to mess it up. They were bonding as a team and everyone enjoyed it. It was upsetting that a little thing like him could ruin  _ everything _ .

 

Keith, on the other hand, started feeling stressed out. It was great that everyone was defending him, but when Allura had mentioned how cruel the Galra Empire was and Lotor twisting her words, he couldn’t help but remember he was the same species as them. He wasn’t full Galra, but he had Galra blood. It reminded him of why he didn’t want to be leader and why he had so many doubts about himself as of late.

 

Lance noticed this and wasn’t going to have it.

 

“You know what,  _ forget _ about that dick head!” Lance said bitterly. “Let’s get back to team bonding night! Pidge, tell me you have more to tell us about Lotor’s diary?”

 

“You think I spent three days decoding that thing for nothing?” Pidge retorted. “Of course I do.”

 

“You are one salty gremlin,” Lance mentioned.

 

“Only the saltiest,” Pidge replied, transferring the information to a mobile device. “It might take all night to get through them, though.”

 

“Perfect, let’s do this!” Lance exclaimed, grabbing Keith by the wrist and dragging him back to the fort.

 

Hunk followed close behind while Pidge, Allura, and Coran lagged back a little bit.

 

“Lance, we don’t have to continue,” Keith mentioned as Lance continued to drag him down the hall. “I think it would be better if I just—!”

 

“ _ Nope _ ,” Lance responded, assertively. “We’re going to continue because I won’t live with the fact that I couldn’t make someone feel better!”

 

“Come on, Keith, we’re just worried about you,” Hunk added. “We just want to make you feel happy.”

 

Keith looked at both Hunk and Lance with a surprised look. The red paladin hadn’t expected the two of them to care so much about him. He hadn’t made much effort to be friends with them up until just recently. He expected them to leave him be, to let him feel better on his own. They were putting so much effort into cheering him up. Keith felt like he didn’t deserve it.

 

This didn’t change the fact that Lance and the rest of the team were going to do it. Once they got back into the fort, Pidge pulled up the file on Lotor’s journal and started reciting the funniest entries so far that she and Coran had decoded. It ranged from frail, petite aliens who submitted to him to tougher, bulkier aliens who Lotor had tortured to get his way. Pidge skipped most of the bigger alien flings since they weren’t funny and horrible, but read the parts where some of them had either bitch slapped him or kicked him in his tender areas.

 

They laughed so much, Keith might have actually forgotten about his insecurities again. Lance made sure that nobody said anything that could potentially make the red paladin seem like he didn’t belong in the group. Despite his own overbearing insecurities that the blue paladin had, he didn’t let it affect his mission to make Keith feel better. Just because he felt insecure himself didn’t mean that he wanted anyone else to feel the same way.

 

After Pidge was done reciting the entries, they started to chat again, asking questions about each other’s home worlds and told more stories about them.

 

It was at this point that Lance started to feel something in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know this feeling; it was foreign. It happened every time Keith spoke up, starting to open up to the team in his own little way with small jokes and his own short stories about Shiro.

  
It was funny. Lance was actually enjoying the sound of Keith’s voice.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, first off, SORRY. I feel bad I haven't posted in a little bit. Second, the fight scene in this chapter? My friend Blake wrote it. Not me. So yeah. Anyway, heres the 11th chapter, enjoy.
> 
> Also theres a lot of langst. and it hurt. I didnt want to write it. Even ask my friend Blake. He knows.

Chapter 11

 

Lance was disappointed to see that Keith had disappeared in the night. The paladins had figured he just went back to his room, but Lance couldn’t help but wonder what caused him to get up before everyone else. He hoped it hadn’t been a nightmare.

 

God knows how many times Lance had done the same.

 

Once everyone had finally gotten up, Allura immediately went to call Kolivan, Coran started his rounds of the castle, leaving Pidge, Hunk, and Lance to clean the fort up.

 

“This was a great idea, Hunk,” Pidge praised. “I think Keith really needed this.”

 

“Actually, it was my idea,” Lance corrected as he grabbed some of the blankets and put them in a pile.

 

Pidge raised an eyebrow.

 

“What? It was!” Lance argued. He started folding the blankets. “Hunk, tell her!”

 

“Well, I was the one who suggested we do something for Keith,” Hunk said. He started stacking the chairs.

 

“But the team bonding night was _my_ original idea!” Lance argued again.

 

“This is true,” Hunk agreed.

 

“Whatever the case, Keith looked like he was feeling better,” Pidge stated, stacking the pillows. “Now can we just get this cleaned up? I want to tinker with Rover two-point-oh.”

 

“Is that what you’re calling the new drone of yours?” Hunk asked, picking up the stack of staffs.

 

“Yep,” Pidge answered, picking up a stack of pillows. “And he’s gonna be so much better than his predecessor.”

 

“What are you planning?” Lance asked, concerned. He picked up the pile of folded blankets and followed behind Pidge to where they were to be stored.

 

“Oh, nothing much,” Pidge replied with a grin. “Just a couple of defensive upgrades.”

 

“Defensive meaning…?”

 

“ _Weapons_ ,” Pidge explained, grinning from ear to ear.

 

“You’re going to make that drone a _deadly weapon_?!” Hunk screeched, following behind them.

 

“I want to be prepared,” Pidge argued. “Last time, Sendak and his crew used Rover one-point-oh and he deactivated when that dick tried to use him to stay on the platform. I’m gonna make it so that doesn’t happen again.”

 

“Uh, Pidge?” Hunk began nervously. “I get that the whole ‘Rover one-point-oh’ subject is still a sore subject, but hear me out: I think what you’re doing is _really_ dangerous and I don’t think you should do it.” His voice was quick and anxious. “I mean, look at what Sendak did! He corrupted the castle, all our tech started trying to kill us… I mean, aren’t you afraid that Lotor might do the same to Rover two-point-oh? Cause if that’s the case, I think turning him into a weapon isn’t the best idea.”

 

“Actually…” Lance began, hesitant to argue with his friend. “Pidge has a point.” He thought back on the celebration on Arus. “That only happened because Sendak got a hold of the castle, and with Rover two-point-oh we’ll have an extra set of eyes, ears, and defenses. If we’d had those things, it could have stopped a fake Rover, you know, from blowing up?”

 

“But you can’t be too careful,” Hunk argued. “Anyway, why are you supporting this?”

 

“I almost died last time, remember?” Lance replied, turning his head towards his bulky friend with a deadpan stare. He turned away. “And besides, with Shiro gone…” He trailed off.

 

Hunk looked at Lance with a worried expression. “Okay, I get it,” Hunk sighed. “We need all the help we can get.”

 

“Don’t worry, Hunk,” Pidge assured as they entered the storage room. “I’m going to set up a security system in him to make sure Lotor and his lackey’s can’t hack into him.”

 

“See, Hunk? Pidge has a plan,” Lance said as he placed the blankets in the already existing pile. He stared at the pile as he started to realize she’d thought up of a plan to help the team, while he had just thought up of a team party that only really cheered them up a bit. “She’s always got a plan,” He muttered quietly.

 

“Hey, buddy; you’ve had some pretty good plans too!” Hunk assured. “Like that one time when…” He paused. “Or that other time with…” He gave a sullen expression. His face lit up with an example in mind. “Oh! What about when we battled that sea creature on the mermaid planet? You basically did everything since your lion is the only one that can maneuver with ease in water!”

 

“Yeah, and you saved my hide how many times?” Lance argued.

 

“Quit moping,” Pidge complained, struggling to get the stack of pillows on top of the pre-existing one. Hunk walked over and helped her out. “Thanks, Hunk— just focus on what you do best, Lance.”

 

The truth of the matter was, Lance didn’t know what he did best. Make people laugh? Flirt? He had no idea, and that’s what bothered him the most.

 

What _was_ he good at?

* * *

 

For the rest of the day, Lance battled himself with what he was good at. His own insecurities were starting to get to him.

 

He sat on his bed, thinking. He had his knees pulled to his chest and his chin resting on his knees.

 

He was good at making jokes, _but what good does that do during a mission?_ He was good at flirting, _but that only causes distractions_ . He was good at shooting, that had to count for something, right?   


_Anyone can pull a trigger_.

 

Lance’s crestfallen face would have scared the others if they were around. He bit his lip. He wanted those thoughts to go away, so he did the one thing he could do— he took care of his face.

 

Lance rummaged through his drawers and grabbed his facial mask. He went to his bathroom and started preparing his face. All Lance needed was a nice, clean face. That must have been it, he just forgot to clean his face.

 

Turns out that was _not_ the case.

 

Not wanting to disrupt his daily face mask routine, Lance still finished the process, but afterwards he wandered out of his room in an attempt to find Coran. He ended up bumping into him near the Teludav.

 

“What ails you, Lance?” Coran asked.

 

“What do you do when you can’t clear your head, Coran?” He asked, rubbing his neck.

 

“Have you tried watching any of my educational videos?”

 

“I heard from Hunk those are kinda out-dated,” Lance replied.

 

“Well, how about the pool?”

 

“About that,” Lance began with narrowed eyes. “Why are Altean pools upside down?”

 

“And Earth pools aren’t?” Coran questioned.

 

“No, they’re not upside down, Coran.”

 

“Well, anyway— why don’t you go down to the training deck and tackle the Gladiator again? That always cheers me up! After collapsing, sometimes I even stayed conscious!”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow with a concerned expression.

 

“What?” Coran asked, tilting his head.

 

“Nothing,” Lance answered slowly. “I’ll just go find Keith and see if he’ll train with me.”

 

“Good idea, young paladin!” Coran called as the blue paladin walked off towards the red paladin’s room. “Get your strength up for the next fight against Lotor!”

 

Lance sighed. He’d always thought Coran a good guy… good alien… good Altean? _Technicalities_ , he thought. But sometimes he could be a bit much. He’d only told him that he was going to find Keith because he’d speculated that the red paladin was in fact training instead of holed up in his room again, but maybe Coran was right. Maybe he should train a while.

 

And maybe even Keith would accompany him.

 

Oh boy, was it Lance’s lucky day. Keith had been training for most of the day, as it would seem as he was sweating and just finishing level five of the training Gladiator. Lance just stood in the doorway a little dumbfounded. He’d seen Keith train before, but maybe it was the fact that he’d gotten to level five when the red paladin had only ever gotten to level three before. Maybe it was the fact that Keith had his mullet in a stubby ponytail, or maybe it was how he was just noticing—

 

 _Bad brain. Bad_.

 

“Lance?” Keith’s voice snapped the blue paladin out of his thoughts. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Oh, uh,” Lance began, tapping his thumbs together anxiously. “I was just wondering if I could join you?” He asked awkwardly with an equally awkward grin.

 

Keith’s ears perked up. “Uh, sure,” He answered awkwardly. He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Tag team on the Gladiator?”

 

“Sounds great— just let me get ready,” Lance replied before rushing to where he had last stored his bayard.

* * *

 

Training had gone fine up until they got past Lance’s comfort level. They had just finished level three and Lance started to panic.

 

Usually, on his own, Lance could get to—at most— level three after a lot of hard work to keep up with Keith. Since it seemed that Keith had leveled up to five, Lance was starting to get a little more fatigued than the red paladin.

 

“Are you doin’ okay?” Keith asked, wiping his sweat from his face. He watched as Lance tried to catch his breath.

 

“I’m good,” Lance lied. He’d always been good at masking things.

 

“Are you sure?” Keith asked again, concerned. “We can take a break if you—!”

 

“ _Nope_ ,” Lance persisted. “I could keep going all day, don’t worry about it!”

 

“If you say so…” Keith said, clearly not buying into the blue paladin’s lie but didn’t argue further.

 

The fourth level started, and Lance soon realized he’d made a mistake in lying.

 

It was either the Gladiator’s levels were insane in their learning arcs, or Lance was just _that_ tired, because the blue paladin couldn’t seem to keep up. His shots were sloppy, at best, and every time the Gladiator swung its staff at Lance while he had his shield up, he was thrown into the wall or harshly against the ground.

 

Keith quickly came to his aid and fended off the Gladiator so that Lance could catch his breath a little bit. The red paladin’s bayard clashed with the Gladiator’s staff now transformed into a sword as well. It went on for a while until Lance caught his breath, now up with his own bayard up and shooting at the Gladiator.

 

The Gladiator performed a quick parry against Keith’s slash and followed it up with a powerful spin kick aimed at his flank. He moved his shield into position to catch the kick, but Keith had been unbalanced by the parry and was thrown against the nearby wall. The breath had been severely knocked out of him and he couldn’t get his body under control enough to stand back up. No longer preoccupied, the Gladiator charged at Lance, swinging its sword to block the incoming shots from Lance that were actually on the mark.

 

As the Gladiator grew steadily closer, Lance started retreating and as it came right up on him, dodging, bobbing, and weaving as well as he could. He tried his best to stop the Gladiator’s assault, pulling up his shield and shooting when he thought there was an opening on it. When he felt his back against the wall, he decided for a last ditch charge. It was all for naught as the Gladiator had Lance quickly on the ground again, tripping Lance as he ran forward and throwing him onto the ground on his back. The Gladiator lowered his sword at Lance’s throat.

 

Keith, finally able to breathe normally, stood up unsteadily. Seeing the Gladiator standing over Lance, his anger bubbled over and he charged at the robot, his features becoming more Galra with each step. He slashed forcefully into the Gladiator’s chest, tearing into its circuits and letting out all of the frustration that had built up in the past week. After he finished the level and ended the training sequence, Keith quickly went to Lance’s side to make sure he was alright.

 

Lance, however, was tired, sore, and much more frustrated with himself. His face was drenched in sweat, and his brain drowned out the sound of Keith’s voice probably asking if he was okay. He bit his lip, the thoughts of not being good enough running marathons in his head.

 

_You’re always going to be two levels behind him, why don’t you just accept it?_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

“Lance?” Keith called, concerned.

 

Lance squeezed his eyes shut, too afraid he might start tearing up. He covered his eyes with his hands just to make sure.  _ You are  _ so _ pathetic _ , Lance thought to himself.

 

“Lance, are you okay?” Keith asked, his ears bent back and a worried expression on his face.

 

He breathed in to calm himself down, breathed out, and moved his hands off his eyes. He put on his cheerful facade.

 

“Lance?”

 

He sat up and did an arm stretch over his head. No use in showing his feelings now. Keith didn’t need to worry about him, he had his own problems to worry about— like how he looked a little more Galra than he had when they had started.

 

“Are you okay?” Keith repeated.

 

“I’m good— great, actually!” Lance lied.

 

“You took a hard hit from the Gladiator; are you sure?” Keith asked.

 

“Nah, it wasn’t that bad; I feel a little sore though, so I’m gonna rest up,” Lance added as he clumsily got back up. Hopefully Keith didn’t notice the limp in his step. “I’ll just put my bayard away and take a nap or somethin’; see you around, mullet.”

 

“Okay?” Keith replied, confused. He sat there for a while, wondering why Lance would fake being alright after being thrown by a large fighting robot.

 

He finally got up, calling for the training sequence to end, and headed to the showers.

* * *

 

Lance had headed back to his room to take a shower, knowing that Keith would have taken a shower near the training deck. He went through his skin care routine, but afterwards, he headed to his lion’s hangar. Maybe if he had a paladin-to-lion chat, he’d get over his insecurities for the time being.

 

So, he sat in front of the blue lion cross legged. He was alone in his hangar, him and his lion. Lance would like to think he had a close bond with Blue, but it seemed Keith and the red lion had a much stronger bond than him. He looked at his robotic lion for a moment.

 

“Hey, Blue?” He said out loud. “We’re close, right?”

 

Of course, Lance wouldn’t get an answer. The lions, while psychic, only spoke in growls and purrs; it only seemed like Blue ever talked to him while she was active, despite the one time when she had saved them after Keith’s Galra incident. Even if she could, he’d only get an implied answer; there wasn’t a guarantee that the blue lion actually meant what he inferred.

 

He sighed. He looked up at Blue’s giant lights for eyes. Lance felt more distant from his lion ever since they rescued Slav. 

 

_ You’re just a third wheel _ .

 

Lance shook his head. He gave a determined expression and looked back at his lion’s face. It faded when a haunting question crossed his mind.

 

“Why did you choose me?” He asked quietly. “You had four others to choose from, each one better than me, so why?” His gaze fell to the ground upon the realization that he probably wasn’t getting a straight answer from his lion. “You could have chosen Shiro, or Pidge— or even  _ Hunk _ .” He bit his lip. “Hell, Keith is a better choice than me.”

 

In a moment, Lance heard a faint growl from his lion. He looked up and felt the same type of feeling he had when they had first encountered the blue lion. Instead of a motionless, inanimate robot, Blue seemed to be looking at Lance without her head physically turned to him. Lance realized that there was no mistake; the blue lion chose  _ him _ .

 

“But why?” Lance asked again, quieter this time. His expression was empty, almost sad.

 

_ You don’t amount to anything _ .

* * *

 

After Keith had gotten out of the showers with a towel around his neck, Allura came down the hall in what seemed like a search for him. His ears perked up with a curious expression across his face.

 

“What’s up princess?” Keith asked, confused. “Somethin’ up?”

 

“Kolivan would like to talk with you,” Allura explained.

 

“Why?” Keith asked with a raised brow and a not-so-convinced look.

 

“It’s about a certain topic,” Allura was hesitant. She seemed distracted by something. “You know the one about…”

 

“I already said I wasn’t going to abandon the paladins,” Keith said with furrowed brows. “Voltron needs me and the rest of them, now more than ever. I can’t leave them now that Lotor’s around.”

 

“That’s why I told him that you two needed to discuss this,” Allura explained. “Kolivan wasn’t dropping the subject.”

 

Keith sighed. He followed Allura to the deck where Coran had the call open. Kolivan’s face was front and center with his usual strong expression.

 

“Greetings, Keith,” Kolivan said. “It’s been a while.”

 

“You know as well as I do that Lotor has taken over the empire,” Keith began, ignoring Kolivan’s greeting. “I can’t leave now.”

 

“After what Prince Lotor has done to you?” Kolivan questioned. “He’s clearly out for  _ you _ .”

 

“That doesn’t mean I should abandon Voltron,” Keith replied, firmly.

 

“What good is Voltron right now without it’s head?” Kolivan asked.

 

Keith’s expression grew hard. “Listen,  _ Kolivan _ ; I don’t know about the Blade of Marmora, but  _ Earthlings _ tend to care a little bit more about each other,” He snapped with a glare. “As far as I’m concerned, Shiro is  _ still _ the head and the other four lions of Voltron can still fight.”

 

“The lions are strong, yes,” Kolivan agreed. “But without Voltron, you wouldn’t have even come  _ close _ to beating Zarkon, so you can  _ forget _ about beating Lotor with only four lions.”

 

“I’m sorry, Kolivan, but are you  _ underestimating _ my paladins?” Allura questioned with a hostile tone.

 

“I’ve seen very well as to what your paladins can do, princess,” Kolivan assured. “However, if I remember correctly, your paladins didn’t seem to get along so well without their leader at Thace and Antok’s funeral.”

 

“A lot can happen in a short amount of time, Kolivan,” Allura warned. “If you saw the paladins now, you’d think otherwise.”

 

“That has yet to be seen, princess,” Kolivan retorted. “All I ask is that you at least think it over. You and your lion would be much safer at our Headquarters.”

 

“Fine, I’ll think about it,” Keith said.

 

“I look forward to your answer in seven quintants time,” Kolivan said.

 

“Then, you look forward to a  _ no _ ,” Keith said loudly as the leader of the Blade of Marmora ended the call. 

 

“Well, with that settled,” Allura began clasping her hands together and turning towards Keith. She smiled. “What have you been doing today? You disappeared last night.”

 

“I went to train,” Keith replied. “I went to clear my head. Actually, Lance joined in for the end of it but he ran off afterwards.”

 

“Oh, is he okay?” Allura asked concerned.

 

“I…” Keith’s gaze wandered off. “I don’t know, actually.”

 

“Well, he  _ did _ seem a little down when I talked to him,” Coran began, turning away from the dashboard. “Actually, he told me he was going to see if he could train with you to clear his head.”

 

This sent alarms in Keith’s head. Did he upset him somehow? Did he accidentally mess up their relationship, whatever it may be, somehow? There was no way, right?

 

But then again, Keith had never been good at making and even  _ keeping _ friends if at all.

 

“Um, Keith?” Coran asked.

 

“Yeah, Coran?”

 

“Are you…  _ aware _ that you’ve seemed to…” Coran paused, staring at Keith’s face.

 

Allura kept shooting gestures at Coran to stop talking.

 

“What?” Keith asked for Coran to continue.   
  


“Are you aware that you’ve seemed to have… turned a little bit more… a little bit more  _ Galra _ since you got out of the pod?” He finished, a little concerned.

 

“What are you talking about—?” Keith suddenly caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass behind Coran.

 

He noticed that Coran wasn’t lying when he looked a little bit more galra since getting out of the healing pod. He had bigger purple splotches as well as some patches of fur on his cheeks and the whites of his eyes were a slightly brighter shade of yellow.

 

Did something happen during his training session?

 

Without a second thought or a word, Keith rushed out the main deck doors.

 

“Coran!” Allura scolded with her arms crossed.

 

“What?”

* * *

 

It had been several quintants and  _ still _ Keith was distant. Maybe even  _ more _ so. No one had been able to keep a decent conversation with him in the halls, and Lance was no better. Hunk, of course, could always find him in his room or the blue lion’s hangar, but couldn’t keep a conversation with  _ him _ either. Pidge and Hunk started to worry for the both of them. The same went for Coran and Allura, however the two Alteans seemed mostly too busy to voice any of their concerns.

 

Coran and Allura kept to the main deck, Coran on the control panel and Allura looking through feed after feed of recorded footage of the training deck and followed Keith’s every movement after that . She didn’t want to have to, but if they were to find out what was happening with Keith, she felt like she had no other choice.

 

“It seems each time he starts developing Galra features is when he’s stricken with extreme emotion,” Allura remarked. “Because the only time he’s  _ really _ done it is that one training session with Lance— he’s getting so much better by the way; Lance I mean.”

 

“He has hasn’t he?” Coran agreed with a prideful nod.

 

“Have you noticed that Keith seems a little more on edge?” Allura asked.

 

“After what Lotor did to him? Of course he’d be a little bit on edge,” Coran replied.

 

“No,” Allura argued. “I mean, Keith during the training session.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean during the training session he seemed more on edge when Lance joined in.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Just watch the clip, Coran,” Allura muttered, playing the feedback again.

 

It was as Allura had explained. Before Lance had entered the room, his movements were fluid and he seemed more relaxed. He even looked focused. Maybe it only happened because of the fact that he was still coping with his Galra features, or maybe it was the fact that he was alone with Lance who the both of them had trouble getting along. Keith, overall, still handled the gladiator on his own, despite his obvious tense form that he had.

 

“Despite all that stress and being so tense as he looked, he  _ still _ handled the gladiator extremely well,” Allura explained, rubbing her chin. “I don’t see why he won’t take leadership, at least until we find Shiro.”

 

At this point, Lance had started eavesdropping. He had decided to take a walk around the castle, since he had kept himself behind closed doors. He couldn’t help himself and pressed his ear against the main deck doors.

 

“Who would pilot the red lion?” Coran asked.

 

“Lance, obviously,” Allura replied. “He’s the next after Keith in regards to impulsiveness.”

 

“The blue lion, then?”

 

“Well, it’d have to be either one of us,” Allura explained. “The blue lion  _ is _ the most accepting of all the lions.”

 

Lance felt a hard tug in his chest. He clutched at his heart and bit his lip. Was the blue lion really as accepting as the princess had said? What did that mean in regards to how good of a paladin Lance was? Did it mean that the blue lion really could have picked anyone? Did Blue pick him out of pity, or did Blue think “I guess he’ll do”? He felt his stomach churn. 

 

He stumbled away from the door and ran off to his room. He had passed Hunk— hard to miss even though he had been going so fast— but he didn’t stop; he just kept running.

 

It  _ might _ have been a bad idea to go for a walk around the castle.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 

During what the Paladins considered the next morning, Allura and Coran continued their research; however, this time they focused on what they could do to reverse it.

 

“Maybe we could have him do some meditation,” Coran suggested. “If it’s caused by extreme emotion, maybe it could reverse by calming him down.”

 

“We could try it, but I don’t know how well it’d work,” Allura explained. “We might be able to agree to it, but it won’t work if he doesn’t actually calm down.”

 

“It’s the only thing we got, princess,” Coran argued.

 

Before Allura could speak again, a call came through. They hadn’t expected a call from Kolivan for another six quintants, so they assumed it was Lotor again. They were correct.

 

On the big holographic screen was the flamboyant and sadistic prince of the Galra empire. The same sly grin was plastered on his face. This annoyed Allura.

 

She glared at him. “What do  _ you _ want?” Allura commanded. 

 

“Oh, just checking up,” Lotor explained. “How’s Quiche doing?”

 

“ _ Keith _ ,” Allura corrected.

 

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

 

“It’s none of your business, now is it?” Allura snarled, stepping forward.

 

“Oh, I suppose it isn’t,” Lotor agreed, cleaning his claws. “But of course I decided to ask anyway. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a little party to plan. You and your paladins are more than welcome to attend.”

 

“Is that a taunt?” 

 

“You could call it an invitation,” Lotor replied with a smile before ending the call.

 

“Call the paladins,” Allura instructed.

 

“Yes, princess,” Coran said as he pressed a button on his dashboard. “Paladins, report to the main deck please.”

 

It took the four paladins a minute or two to reach the main deck, but they all gathered. Hunk was worried that Lance wouldn’t show up; he was relieved to see him standing next to him. Keith, however, was a different story.

 

Keith, while at the beginning wasn’t any different, didn’t speak to anyone. After team bonding night, it had seemed that he was more willing to hold a conversation, but he seemed to have reverted back to his reserved self.

 

“So, what’s the deal, princess?” Lance asked, slightly awkward sounding. No one had talked for a good couple ticks, so he was the first to do so.

 

“Lotor called again,” Allura answered with a sigh. Her arms were crossed in more of a conserved way than her typical confident way. “He’s invited us to a party. I say we crash it.”

 

“Like is it an actual party, or…?” Hunk asked, slightly confused. “Cause that could lead to poisoned food, you know.”

 

“I think Hunk’s on the right track here, princess,” Pidge agreed, looking as if she had went through another twenty-four hour session of analysing information. “It could be a trap.”

 

“Lotor seemed very confident in his plan, it seemed like,” Coran added.

 

Allura sighed. “I suppose you two have a point,” She agreed. “We’ll have to think this over.”

 

“In the meantime, Keith, Allura and I have a special training for you,” Coran said in a sing song tone. “We just thought it up a moment ago!”

 

“Special… training?” Keith repeated with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Yes!” Coran agreed with a nod. He placed his fists onto his hips. “To hopefully help you out!”

 

“If this doesn’t involve me, I’m going to go back over the information on Lotor,” Pidge muttered as she walked out with a hunched back.

 

“I think I’m going to train by myself,” Hunk said also leaving the room.

 

Lance slowly turned. “...I think I’ll just go back to my room,” he said quietly, walking out.

 

“So, what kind of training are you talking about?” Keith asked, slightly concerned.

 

“What we’ve gathered is that what triggers your gradual…  _ transformation _ , is whenever you get too emotional, for example: Anger,” Allura explained. “We thought maybe some meditation could help you out and maybe reverse some of the effects.”

 

“Uh…” Keith paused. “...Sure, I guess.” He wasn’t too sure he’d be able to pull it off. Keith had always had a hard time keeping control of himself, but what the princess wanted she usually got.

* * *

 

The training hadn’t gone too well. Keith had always been the physical kind of guy. Sitting around and muttering mantras just wasn’t his thing. It was obvious to Allura and Coran that he was only getting frustrated. He had too many thoughts running through his head, too many things he couldn’t shake— it was a wonder how he could get any sleep if he even did.

 

“Have you tried clearing your mind like in that team training we did before?” Coran suggested.

 

Keith just grumbled to himself, crossing his arms, and his face heating up. “This is  _ dumb _ ,” he growled, looking off to the side.

 

“Well, it wouldn’t be so  _ dumb _ if you’d at least  _ try _ !” Allura argued, hands on her hips.

 

“I  _ am _ trying, princess!” Keith snapped. “It’s just kinda…  _ hard _ right now.”

 

“Well, I suppose you  _ have _ been under a load of stress lately,” Coran agreed, rubbing his chin. “It’s reasonable that it’d be harder than usual to achieve that sort of state.”

 

“We’re just going to have to keep trying,” Allura said, her nose in the air. “Let’s try this again!”

 

“Whatever…” Keith muttered before he went back to his meditative position.

 

They tried again for another several hours or so, but with no luck. It just ended the same as the first time. Allura, however, kept pushing for Keith to continue. Unfortunately, it only got him frustrated which made him more Galra in appearance.

 

“I think it’d be a good idea to take a break for today,” Coran suggested.

 

“Great,” Keith muttered as he stood up. “Then I’m going to my room.”

 

“Hold it, Keith!” Allura said loudly, her arms crossed and an angry expression on her face. “We’re not done here!”

 

“I don’t care,” Keith growled, turning around and walking away. “I am  _ done _ .”

 

“Well, just for today,” Coran muttered.

 

“Keith, come back here this instant!” Allura commanded as he walked away. “Don’t you dare walk through that door!”

 

“ _ Later _ ,” Keith hissed before the door shut behind him.

* * *

 

Lance just couldn’t sit still. After about an hour of pacing in his room, thoughts running circles in his head, he headed towards the green lion’s hangar to consult with Pidge.

 

“What do you want Lance?” Pidge muttered as she heard the door to the hangar open.

 

“How’d you know it was me?” Lance asked, slightly annoyed.

 

“You’re the only one who doesn’t have anything to do,” Pidge replied, tapping away at her computer.

 

“That’s not true!” Lance argued.

 

“Then tell me  _ one _ thing you do besides putting on face masks.”

 

Lance paused. “I train sometimes,” He mentioned, although rather timidly.

 

“Sometimes?”

 

“Okay, maybe  _ once _ since we beat Zarkon,” Lance muttered.

 

“Oh, really now?” Pidge questioned, skeptical of his answer. “And who can attest to this?”

 

“Keith,” Lance answered as-a-matter-of-factly. 

 

“You sure?”

 

“I bet if you went and asked him right now, he would tell you we trained together.”

 

Pidge stopped typing. She turned her head slowly to look at Lance with a confused look. “You…  _ Trained _ with Keith?”

 

“Yes!” Lance said, louder. He crossed his arms.

 

“That doesn’t seem like you,” Pidge muttered.

 

“You know what— this isn’t what I’m here for,” Lance spat.

 

“Then what  _ are _ you here for?”

 

“I…” Lance sighed. “I was just wondering if I was useful to the team?”

 

Pidge’s expression softened. “I mean, yeah— we kinda need you to form Voltron.”

 

“I mean, like, outside of that?”

 

Pidge went quiet for a moment. “Well,” She began. She swiveled her chair around to face Lance. “You have really good aim?”

 

“Was that a question or an answer?”

 

“Answer.”

 

“Anything else?”

 

Pidge tilted her head from side to side, thinking. “Well, you’re pretty good at making plans on the spot and getting out of sticky situations, I guess.”

 

“You guess?”

 

“Lance, what’s going on?” Pidge asked, concerned. “Where is this coming from?”

 

“It’s…” Lance paused. “It’s nothing, I guess.”

 

There was a moment of silence. Pidge was concerned but didn’t know how to go about asking about it in a way that wouldn’t shut Lance down.

 

“Do you…” Lance thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Do you think the blue lion would have picked someone else?”

 

“What do you mean?” Pidge asked, raising an eyebrow. “The blue lion obviously chose you or else we wouldn’t have been able to find it in the first place.”

 

“Like, Keith was the one who had like that gut feeling or whatever that Blue was there, you know?”

 

“But you were the one who activated the cavern to reveal the blue lion,” Pidge argued. 

 

“But he  _ sensed _ the blue lion on earth,” Lance argued. 

 

“Don’t you think that’s just because he’s part alien?” Pidge muttered, narrowing her eyes. “None of us could sense the blue lion either.” She sighed, softening her expression. “Look, Lance; I think you’re just overthinking things a little. We just need to find Shiro and everything will be fine.”

 

“Are you sure about that?” Lance asked, his expression despondent.

 

Pidge looked at Lance surprised, a loss for words. “Lance, if this is about Keith—!”

 

“ _ It’s not about Keith _ !” Lance snapped.

 

“Then what  _ is _ it about?”

 

“I—!” Lance stopped. “I don’t know, I just…”

 

“Lance,” Pidge began, standing up from her seat.

 

“You know what, forget it,” Lance muttered, turning around and heading out of the green lion’s hangar. “I’ll just go find Hunk.”

 

Pidge just watched as he walked out with a concerned expression.

* * *

 

Lance didn’t go to find Hunk despite it being the much better option. Instead, he decided to spare his best friend his insecurities and went to his own lion’s hangar again. He decided maybe he should just sit in the cockpit for a while, maybe spark some paladin-lion conversation.

 

Once inside the cockpit, he sat in the pilot seat and pulled his legs close to his chest.

 

“Is it true, girl?” Lance asked. “Are you really the most accepting of all the lions?”

 

After a tick of silence, Blue gave him a response in a growl. It was affectionate and comforting.

 

“Why did you choose me?” 

 

Lance heard a purr. Oddly enough, he heard words.  _ Actual _ words.

 

_ You’re not afraid to do what’s right _ .


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH SHNIKIES WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT AN UPDATE
> 
> The amount of kudos and feedback I get on this fic despite my lack of updating is baffling to me tbh.
> 
> I regret nothing
> 
> enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 14

 

Keith paced in the lounge area with his helmet in hand and in full body armor. He had been trying his best to fit it over his ears, but as he had no control over them yet, they just got in his way. After trying once more to put it on his head, he gave a frustrated huff before dropping the helmet on the ground making a loud _thunk_.

 

That’s when Hunk came in.

 

“What was that?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Nothing,” Keith said quickly, crossing his arms.

 

Hunk walked up to Keith, crouched down to grab his helmet and handed it back to the red paladin. “I think you’re covering something up— what’s up?” He asked.

 

Keith took his helmet. “I, uh,” He paused, looking away from Hunk. “ Was thinking about going on a search for Shiro.”

 

“But we’ve already searched everywhere and found nothing,” Hunk argued.

 

“I can’t just _give up_ ,” Keith said, tightening his grip on his helmet. “I don’t care what Coran says, he’s _got_ to be out there, Hunk.”

 

“I understand, but we’ve got bigger problems like Lotor,” Hunk said, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “And with one man down, we can’t make it without you.”

 

“You’re giving me too much credit—!”

 

“ _No, Keith_ ,” Hunk snapped. “You don’t give yourself _enough_.”

 

Keith looked at Hunk with surprise. He hadn’t been on the receiving end of his stern voice.

 

“Yeah, you’re hot-headed, you didn’t play well with others, _but_ you’ve gotten _so_ much better!” Hunk explained with a smile. “That scaultrite mission? I don’t think I would have kept a level head if you hadn’t said something. And don’t forget about the countless times you’ve discarded your safety for everyone else.”

 

“I mean,” Keith trailed off. He really didn’t have a response to that.

 

“Whatever Shiro saw in you? He didn’t imagine it,” Hunk continued. “Someday, you’ll probably be a great leader for Voltron, but you’re never gonna get there unless you get experience. I mean, you didn’t expect me to be such an amazing cook overnight, did you?”

 

Keith gave a laugh. “I guess you’re right.”

 

“I _am_ right,” Hunk corrected. “Just like I was about Rolo.”

 

Keith rolled his eyes with a grin.

* * *

 

Lance sighed. He stood in his lion’s hangar in his full suit of armor, his helmet in his hands. He looked down. Was he really doing this?

 

It wasn’t like he _had_ to. Going after Lotor alone wasn’t _necessary_. The entire team could do it together and they’d even have more of a chance.

 

So why was he doing this?

 

Lance violently shook his head. He was doing this to prove himself. He was doing this so that he could prove to himself that he wasn’t a nuisance on the team. And besides— Lotor was going after their own and there was no _way_ he was gonna let Keith run right into his trap. God knew the red paladin wouldn’t bat an eye  if he got the chance to take down their biggest enemy.

 

He shoved his helmet onto his head and sprinted to his Lion.

 

“Alright, Blue, let’s foil that fashion horror story’s plan,” Lance said out loud.

 

Blue growled once in agreement before the two bolted out of the hangar.

* * *

 

“Make it go faster!” Allura shouted, her eyes glued to the holographic screen with the encrypted text going through Pidge’s complicated decryption algorithm.

 

“Do you even _know_ how this encryption works?” Pidge sighed. “Lotor’s got some complicated encryption here, it’s gonna take a bit to fully decrypt.”

 

“In other words—we’re going as fast as we can, Princess,” Coran explained. “It’s no easy feat.”

 

“You’re tellin me,” Pidge muttered, tapping her index finger on the dashboard.

 

“How’s the deciphering going?” Hunk asked as both he and Keith walked on deck.

 

“We got like a word,” Pidge muttered in an annoyed tone.

 

“Well, what word?” Hunk asked again.

 

“The.”

 

Hunk couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Sorry, I’m— ‘the’?” Hunk repeated. “That’s all you have right now?”

 

“Laugh all you want but— Keith?” Pidge stuttered when she turned her head. She blinked. “Uh, I heard from Allura that you stormed off during—!”

 

“We don’t need to talk about it,” Keith said firmly. His ears were folded back.

 

“So, what are you guys looking for?” Hunk asked, trying to relieve the tension.

 

“Some information on this party Lotor has planned,” Pidge said. “I suspected that this has been in the works for far longer than that infiltration we did a while ago.”

 

“I suspected those plans might have changed slightly, but it wouldn’t really matter in the long run, not to mention how quickly he’s put it together,” Allura said.

 

“So, you’re saying this ‘party’ has been a part of Lotor’s plan since... _before_ this whole... mess?” Hunk asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Pidge and Keith’s purple ears.

 

“Why are you doing that?” Keith questioned with an annoyed expression.

 

“No reason,” Hunk said quickly, putting his hands behind his back. He pursed his lips and turned his gaze away from Keith.

 

“That’s what we’re trying to find out, anyway,” Coran explained, ignoring the last remarks. “We’ve only just started, so it might take a while.”

 

“Maybe like a quintaint or something,” Pidge muttered staring at the screen with a bored expression.

 

“I guess all we got left to do is wait, then,” Keith muttered, slightly frustrated looking at the complicated message on the screen.

 

Both he and Hunk went and sat at their seats, watching patiently— or impatiently in Keith and Allura’s case— for the message to decypher. Soon enough another word decrypts, then another and another.

 

Pidge’s eyes wander around the room in boredom. Unfortunately, the message was taking longer than Lotor’s infamous journal from before. She was getting bored despite her interest in figuring out the plan they were going to have to deal with head on. Her attention is caught by the dashboard where a small blinking red light is flashing— reflecting against her glasses.

 

She adjusts them, eyes squinting trying to figure out what it meant. She studied the board and saw that it was a small map of the castle— it was one of the lion’s hangars.

 

_The blue lion was missing._

 

“Uh— _guys_ ,” Pidge began, slightly concerned. She turns to the other two paladins. “Has anyone seen lance at all since that last meeting?”

 

Hunk’s expression quickly turns to worry as his eyes dart from person to person in the room. Keith’s eyebrows furrow, confused as to why she’d even ask. Lance wouldn’t run off would he?

 

No, he _wouldn’t_. Not after getting all those bruises from the gladiator.

 

...Would he?

 

“What are you talking about Number five? The blue lion is safely in its hangar right— _Oh, quiznak_!” Coran screams before breaking into a sprint towards the blue lion’s hangar.

 

Without a tick to spare, the paladins and Allura do the same, hoping that the castle was wrong and that Lance and his lion were still safely within the walls of their castle ship. It feels like ages before they finally reach the hangar. Keith’s heart it pounding in his chest— the same feeling he had when Shiro had gone missing just doboshes ago. He can hear it in his ears, the anxiety getting to him.

 

Hunk was close behind, huffing out his breaths, but doesn’t waver for a tick. The poor guy; Lance was his best pal. It wasn’t like him to go off on his own like this.

 

Pidge, with her smaller stature, is steadily keeping up, just as worried as Hunk. Why was the Blue Lion’s hangar so far away?

 

Allura may not have been as worried as the rest of them were, but she didn’t waver any sense of urgency. She kept up, most likely wanting to make sure they didn’t lose another paladin.

 

Coran, as he had gotten that head start, was far ahead of them, reaching the hangar before everyone else. To their dismay, he gave out a shriek.

 

The hangar was empty— no blue lion, no _lance_. There was no telling when he had slipped past their own radars.

 

“We have to go find him!” Hunk screamed, hands pulling down on his cheeks. “Who know’s what could happen to him! He’s all alone out there— what if there’s a fleet? What if he gets cornered on a barren planet where his reception gets cut off and we can’t talk to him?! _What if Lotor gets a hold of him and tortures him_?!”

 

“Hunk, calm down,” Keith said, holding up his hands. He flinches for a tick when he’s reminded of his galra claws but returns to his facade. “We’ll find him and bring him back _safe_. We’re not gonna let him die, alright?”

 

“ _But what if he does_ ?!” Hunk wailed, falling to his knees in a loud _thump_ . Tears begin to well in his eyes. “ _We gotta go get him Keith_!”

 

“ _Hunk_ !” Keith shouted firmly. “ _Calm_ . _Down_.”

 

Hunk sniffed before giving Keith his full attention.

 

“We’re gonna find him, okay?” Keith assured. “Stop worrying about it so much.”

 

“Well, what do we do? We don’t even know where he went,” Hunk said with a sniffle.

 

“I have a suspicion he went off to crash Lotor’s party on his own,” Pidge said reluctantly. She sighed, hand pinching at the rim of her nose, pushing up her glasses.

 

“Gimme a tick,” Keith said, bouncing on the balls of his feet before breaking into a run back to the main deck.

 

“Keith!” Pidge shouted, quickly turning her body towards the hangar doors.

 

Keith stopped and turned towards Pidge.

 

She hesitated. “Did you really train with Lance?” She asked in the same manner.

 

Keith paused. “Yeah,” He said. “Yeah, I did.”

 

Without another word, he makes another break back towards the main deck.

* * *

 

Lance’s heart pounded in his ears as he piloted his lion towards the direction of Lotor’s ship. Of course, he didn’t leave unprepared— he managed to download a map to where Lotor was suspected to be earlier, but there wasn’t a guarantee that he’d be there. A part of him _wished_ he wasn’t there so that he could just turn back and forget this ever happened.

 

Of course, Lance’s wishful thinking had to be wrong.

 

He makes it to a painfully obvious Galra ship— A ship he should know as familiar as he’d seen it before when they had gone on that intel mission that got Keith purplefied. _God_ he wished he could forget about that. He couldn’t help but feel like it was his fault.

 

He shook his head and pressed on, stealthily around the ship to avoid detection.

 

He flew upside down underneath the belly of the ship. He steadily landed the blue lion against it. Once secured, he launched himself out of the blue lions mouth and directed himself down towards the ship’s wall. He took out his bayard and as quietly as he can starts shooting a hole through the ship. With full force, he slams his foot into the hole he just made and zooms through.

 

Luckily for him, the hallway he blasted through was empty… That’s sort of odd.

 

He snuck down the hallway, trying his best to keep out of sight. He kept going, pointing his bayard in front of him, taking a couple of ticks every so often to cover his own six. So far he was clear. Lance started to get a bad feeling in his gut. His fight or flight response was screaming at him to run, but it was too late to back down now. He was doing this. He was _doing_ this.

 

He reached a set of doors that he assumed was Lotor’s room mostly because they were the biggest so far and just gave off that “evil leader” vibe. He shot the control panel that kept it closed, the doors swinging open to reveal Lotor waiting for him, looking out his window.

 

It was then that Lance realized that he had, in fact, made a huge ass mistake.

 

“Greetings, blue paladin,” Lotor exclaimed, hands behind his back as he turns to face Lance. “I must admit—you have _guts_ to come barging in here alone without your petty little _posse_.”

 

“ _It’s Voltron, ugly_ ,” Lance snapped, aiming his bayard at Lotor’s smug face. “And we’re not _petty_.”

 

“Could have fooled me,” Lotor replied with a laugh. “Now tell me— what makes you think you can take me head on _alone_?”

 

“Nothing,” Lance spat. “I’m just sick and tired of you picking on my buddy, Keith.”

 

“Oh, you’re half galra friend?” Lotor mused with a grin. “He must mean quite a deal to you.”

 

“We’re a _team_ ,” Lance growled, forcing himself to take a step closer.

 

“Oh, would you listen to that, you’re voice is _shaking_ ,” Lotor mocked. “Tell me, blue paladin, do _you_ mean as much to _him_ as he is to _you_?”

 

Lance’s eyes narrowed at the prince of the galra empire. “Why do you care?” He snapped.

 

“Oh, just a simple question,” Lotor said casually, beginning to pace slowly from one side of the platform to the other. “Ezor, bind him.”

 

“What—!” Before Lance could think properly, a red-orange skinned galra came out of her hiding with a wide grin spread from ear to ear. She nimbly disarmed him of his bayard that disappeared on its own accord and slapped a pair of handcuffs on one hand, spinning him around to cuff the other. It maybe reminded him a little too much of Nyma’s trick she had done on him not too long ago.

 

“It seems that we’ve got a change of plans,” Lotor said in an amused tone. “We’ll use the boy as _bait_.”

 

“Yes, Lotor,” Ezor said in a creepily cheerful tone.

 

Lance squirmed and struggled, but to no avail. Ezor had him bound while a much bigger, pink fluffy eared galra picked him up with ease over her shoulder.

 

“Zethrid, Ezor, take the boy to the _room_ ,” Lotor commands with a malicious smile.

 

“Yes, Lotor,” Zethrid said with a hand on her heart like in their galra salute.

 

“We’re gonna have fun, aren’t we, Zethrid?” Ezor said as the two walked down the hallway.

 

“I’m gonna _enjoy_ this,” Zethrid said with a toothy grin.

 

Lance started to panic. He should have ran when he felt it in his gut the first time. He should have turned back when he reached Lotor’s ship. _He should have just went back to his room when he started doubting himself_.

 

_Why did he let himself do this_?


End file.
